Chapter 699

Kat had no issue at all sharing the specifics of her abilities and said as much before going on to explain them all in detail, “and that about sums up everything I think,”

Blue smiled as another section of rope snapped, just two more and she could finally get back the full movement of her hands. Her arms were still trapped against her side, but she was sure with her hands free she could slip out of that or cut them. “That’s actually really interesting now you’ve gone over your skills. I still don’t have a good idea of how rare they all are but True Sight seems really useful. How does it work though? If it works on illusions as well as like... light projections how does it work?”

Kat opened her mouth to respond before closing it sharply. *How... how does that work? I... I have no idea at all how. It must have some sort of intention component surely.* “I have no idea now you bring it up. Like... like those displays from the first round of the tournament. I was able to watch them perfectly fine without my eyes interfering. Hmm... weird...”

Blue shrugged, then, realising Kat could see her replied with, “Yeah but some of those things just are that way. Why, I bet you’ll be able to see lies or something ridiculous as you get more powerful. It just seems like the natural progression for that ability considering how strong it is already,”

“I dunno,” said Kat with some hesitation, “while that sounds cool, and follows a sort of logical progression is seeing lies and seeing through illusions really so similar?”

Blue sighed, “Yes and no. I mean, no obviously they aren’t... but at the same time when you get to the real powerful stuff and start playing with concepts things get a bit weird. I mean, that’s what I’ve heard anyway. The only one I know who might deal with concepts is Thyme and despite how strong they are... Thyme is a relatively unknown figure to us mere mortals. Well, not quite sure you count in that category,”

Kat smiled at joke, quite glad the mood was being lightened. She may still be in chains but it wasn’t so bad. She had good conversation ready at hand and didn’t need to be anywhere. There might be a loss of points but screw that she was bound in metal restraints. They could wait a bit if necessary. “Does that count as my question by the way?”

.....

Blue paused in the sawing letting the silence sit for a couple of seconds before speaking. “Huh... I mean... no, you know what, you gave me a LOT of information about your abilities that easily could have been a question each. I’ll say that it doesn’t count as your question, go ahead.”

“Thanks Blue. Hmm... then I guess this one is for my girlfriend not for me. What’s it like when you start to learn magic? Like... how do you go about it and how difficult is it?” asked Kat.

“Ooh, that’s an interesting question. You know... I don’t think I’ve ever been asked that. Most people either know, being mages themselves or attempted mages, or just don’t care at all. Ok... um... hmm... so there’s a couple things that make this a more complicated question then it seems. The first is that you can’t, or at least shouldn’t try and learn magic too young. It’s very dangerous.

“The reason for this is that while a teen running out of mana completely is a bad thing, resulting in a week or so of bed rest, a young child running out of magic is usually a death sentence. Now, this isn’t as scary as it seems because you really have to TRY to use magic outside of your body. It’s not something that can be accidentally done because of how hard it is. So, when someone says they started learning magic as a child, they aren’t being truthful, or most of them aren’t.

“What you start on is learning the sigils and what they all do. That’s actually the other big issue is that learning your affinity can be annoying if it isn’t any of the common ones. The main way of learning is to hand the person in question an elementally attuned item of some kind. Maybe an old sword or a staff or whatever and see if they can use their mana to charge it at all. Now, you can learn to charge and make use of other elemental enchantments later in life but that’s another big time commitment.

“Once you know what your element is, you get started on manifesting your first ring. It’s... it’s exceptionally hard. I didn’t try as hard as I should have and it took me... oh it was a good six months of effort I believe before I got my mana into a ring. How do I explain it... hmm... so mana. You first have to find it within yourself, which isn’t too hard. A week of meditation and even an idiot can do that.

“The issue is pushing it out of your hands or wherever you want. Just pushing mana up against your hand and hoping for the best won’t work... what... what you have to do is get your mana moving. Run it around your body, faster and faster, increasing the speed over and over until it manages to burst out of your body and form your first ring. That’s actually one of the big limiters on ring magic. Sure you need more magic, but all the magic in the world won’t save you if you can’t get your magic up to speed.

“The complex part about it, is that as you start getting faster... your body starts to get a bit pickier in regards to how the mana travels. You need to start directing it around corners, perhaps into odd shapes, bend and break it into the right form to give you proper power. I’m not at that stage though, I’m still speeding my mana up at basic levels,” explained Blue as the last rope snapped.

*Hmm... that certainly sounds familiar. Well in some ways at least. I wonder if I’ll need to start working how best to circulate my demonic energy. The only issue is that the speed doesn’t seem to matter when it comes to generating my flames. The flames just want more more more.*

While Kat was pondering over that Blue was shifting, trying to force her hands around to the front and not having the best luck if truth be told. That was mostly because she was being impatient and trying to do both at the same time. About a minute of these useless attempts later and Blue calmed down enough to realise the issue. Blushing she quickly thought of a question to distract Kat from her mistake. “You mentioned you had a girlfriend before. What made you fall for her? Was it the looks?”

Kat couldn’t help but laugh at the question, and Blue gave Kat a weird look she could practically feel. Perhaps she could? Kat shook the feeling off, and answered, “Sorry, I mean... it’s not really funny I guess... or maybe it is? Hmm... well to start with I’m asexual-”

“Wait how can you have a girlfriend if you’re asexual?” asked Blue cutting Kat’s explanation off.

Kat huffed, “I was getting to that Blue,” Blue looked suitably abashed at the interruption but Kat couldn’t see that, “now, as I was saying, I’m asexual but Lily is my best friend, or was? I don’t know how you classify things now I’m dating her. Anyway, she was my best and only friend for a long time. Somewhere along the line, and I’m not sure when exactly it happened, she became the most important person in my life by far.

“Looking back... I’m not really sure when she got so far ahead of basically everyone else. Gramps is still up there, and Sylvie isn’t as far behind as I’m making out I love my little sister, adopted, to bits. Still, it’s not the same and Lily carver her own place in my heart. More recently... I think... I think some other people started to realise that I didn’t LIKE her, I LOVED her despite the lack of sexual attraction.

“So I was sort of already half aware of these things and then all of a sudden Lilly... well I don’t quite want to get into the details but she confessed, and I confessed and admitting to not seeing her sexually at all, but also made it very clear that I really wanted to date her. I think... and maybe this sounds bad... but the idea of her ending up with someone else was one I couldn’t stomach. Clearly jealousy, and something I’m not afraid to admit that. Still, things have been good so far. Lily seems to be of a similar sexually charged mind. She’s a bit adorable though. Hardly willing to admit to her fantasies. Despite dating now, I’m more comfortable talking about sex or kissing. Perhaps it’s because they don’t have the same weight to me?

“As to what made me fall for her... Hmm... I suppose I can think of a few things in retrospect.