Don't Fear Of Darkness

A powerful flame floated gently over my hand. Then I started slowly reducing its volume, without decreasing the power. The fire was already the size of a baseball ball.

(Have succeeded now?) I thought excited.

Unfortunately, at the moment the fire began to waver and lose shape. I fired him immediately away from me.

BOOM !!

The sphere exploded with a bang a few meters away. I wiped the sweat from my forehead

"Flop again."

This is the sixth test today, the same every time. Edmund said it was nothing extraordinary, and the only way is to keep practicing, which somehow did not comfort me.

It was better for me to learn the spells themselves. I have already fully grasped the Translator and the Fire Lance, although the latter requires a lot of mana, so it is better not to use it unnecessarily. In addition, I was getting better and better with Windy Step, but after the first attempt, I bump my head with a tree. For a long moment I saw two Edmunds who laughed to the disperse, and that was two too many!

His smile has gone down when he returned to his room and saw two fragrant "gifts" left by Barghests. It smelled like someone died there, rotted and farted at the same time, although who knows, I never saw them do it shit, so maybe it was the remnants of this magician that they ate? In any case, even after using the magic, the smell lasted all day.

Such vex became almost everyday, sometimes I won, sometimes he won. The dead-heat happened once, In that day I regretted that I had a sense of taste, because the bastard to my water in the bottle added jalapeno and I had to eat the grass to suppress the pain, and Edmund, that he has a sense of touch, because I added to a shower gel crumbled poison ivy. He flew out of the bathroom like an arrow to find an ointment which I unfortunately hid for his unluck. He looked like big raspberry all day.

Yeee ... there were only losers that day.

Apart from these minor skirmishes, my training went well. My accuracy improved with both weapons and magic. Thanks to the exercises, my fitness and fitness increased, and overall I looked much better than the last two years. I have already mastered all the basic knowledge of magic, so I focused mainly on practical classes, reading only in the evenings of the book Edmund gave me.

"How do you try?" I heard the Master's voice behind me.

"On average, whenever I am one step away from the goal, I lose control over the form and I have to start again."

"Well, it requires practice." Edmund thought for a moment. "And what are you doing with the energy inside the spell?"

"Nothing, should I?"

"Indeed. You must enter the power in the inside in a rotating motion. You then take her direction, or else she will look for an outlet in the weakest place of the spell and the whole effort will gone. "

I took his advice and tried to move the mana inside the spell. The effect was not much better than before, but still better, which meant that I was on the right track.

During today's exercises, the Master wanted to teach me a new spell that could detect mana concentrations. Until this century, it did not have any specific name, so it was not until recently that they were called "Radar".

"This is a useful spell that allows you to find cl.u.s.ters of power, magical artifacts, or magicians, in short everything that resonates with magic. Your task will be to find the crystals that I hid around the property. You have two hours for it. To use this spell you must- "

"Emm, Master, it probably is not necessary."

"And what is the reason?"

"... Because I know where they are." I pointed my finger at one of the sculptures. "One is in the statue, another in bushes behind us, and the next hold the Master in his pocket."

He looked at me completely dumbfounded.

"How ... how do you know? Have you seen how I put them? "

I shook my head.

"It's not like that, I ... I've heard music from them."

"Wait a minute, you said you could hear something from magicians. Does it mean that you can detect magic even in objects without using spells, but only listening to this music?

"Yes, although I still do not know what it's about." I replied, somewhat embarrassed. I think, if it were not for the fact that I met Edmund, I would have thought I'm going crazy.

"Although when it comes to magical items I hear only one continuous sound more, only the volume is different. Only from the Master and my familiars I can hear clear music. "

(In total, thanks to this I live, so even if I'm going crazy I can somehow gets over it)

Edmund thought for a long moment what I was saying.

"Maybe it's his Weirdness?" He muttered under his breath.

"What?"

"You see, in the case of many magicians, their power may to some extent affect their behavior, causing some unusual interests, hobbies or habits. This is defined by Weirdness and manifests itself really differently. It may be a small thing, for example someone will only wear black socks, or will not eat or drink anything on Tuesday. There were those who went out n.a.k.e.d in every new moon and shouted that the moon was still full, and for the rest of the month they were very serious and calm people. Personally, I knew a magician who was a great lover of literature, but if he was very stressed he started to eat a book. Yes, he ate the page after the page leaving only the covers. The more stressed he was the thicker the book he ate was fatter."

I was totally fool. In my life I would not think that magicians are such a set of madmans.

"Wait a minute, you said you knew him, something happened to him?"

"Yes, one day the poor man died of overeating when he tried to eat the whole"Never-ending Story". His stomach could not do it. "

Edmund said it with such a serious expression that I used every piece of the will not to laugh.

"Your Weirdness can be considered a true blessing, because it is useful and in combat and while spying, you can find a mage or trap without revealing yourself by casting a spell, of course if it is quirk."

I do not think he is convinced about it himself, but rather it has the most sense for the moment. "

"And from another barrel, does the Master have his weirdness?

"It's not your business." Edmund quickly cut the subject.

(Hmm, interesting. You have to check it.)

"Ah, I just almost forgot." Edmund rummaged in his jacket pocket. He took out a small box, nicely packed in red paper.

"What is that?"

"You will find out how you will open, but after training." He said clearly.

I shrugged and put the box on the window next to it.

______________________________________

After returning to the room, I sat on the edge of the bed. In my hand I kept the package Edmund gave me. I started to cut the paper, and when I finished I lifted the lid.

When I saw what is inside, I was speechless. I gently picked up the content.

It was a photo. I was on it, Marcelina and our parents. A souvenir from our trip to Lake Śniardwy. It was a really cool weekend. As a standard, my sister and I pissed off each other and our parents tried to calm us down by buying ice cream. We were swimming on the lake on the waterbikes and in the evening we had a barbecue.

We were laughing all day and having fun. This is one of my happier memories.

At that moment I realized that there was a folded card in the box.

Only three words were written inside.

,,All the best"

Yeah...

Today is December 23. My birthday.

I did not care about them from the accident. Sometimes I wanted to tell myself that I do not have them.

It was easier for me forget about it for myself. It was not so painful.

And yet now, because of the picture and two words, I'm shaking. I pressed both things to my c.h.e.s.t, suppressing my tears with all my strength. The Barghests, seeing this, began to rub their faces at me to comfort me.

And that's when I understood.

That I'm not alone.

I met Edmund, the man who acts as my teacher and like a eccentric uncle at the same time, and Xene and Basta who take care of me all the time. I began to get to know the arcana of magic, which I always dreamed about and for the first time in a lifetime I have a specific goal.

I smiled at this thought.

"Thank you." I whispered as quietly as I could.