“Good. Now, open your eyes and tell me what you ‘see,'” Anette encouraged Cyneah.
Anette’s request was not a thoughtless remark. Cyneah was blind, true, but during their conversation that morning, Anette already confirmed that she was not blind by birth. In a conversation Anette had with Kyran, they already guessed as much. Since birth, if Cyneah had been blind, how could she describe the ‘lights’ she sees so vividly? She could also understand the structure of things as long as you properly explain it to her.
Cyneah slowly opened her eyes. The moment she did, she noticed wisps of white-colored mist circling her.
“H-How…?” Cyneah asked, her eyes widening in surprise.
Since the day she lost her eyesight, she only saw the darkness that sometimes would be accompanied by two or three ‘lights.’ Occasionally, she would also see the shape of an activated array. But all those times, what she could see, were intact. However, these white-colored mist had no shape but gave her the feeling it could be shaped into something as long as she willed it.
Anette smiled and sat cross-legged facing Cyneah.
Unlike them, she could see the surrounding energies in full colors anytime because of her innate ability. For this same reason, she had always been gifted in using magic sense among her peers.
Nolan did not volunteer to teach magic sense because he knew Anette was better suited to teaching it. Besides, when they were still studying magic, he and Cade had always been bad at utilizing their magic sense. It was not because they could not understand but because of the nature of their magic. The nature of Nolan’s magic was too broad, while Cade’s bloodline causes his magic to be erratic at times.
Remembering this made Nolan glance at Kyran. Could he have the same issues as Cade because of his bloodline?
“Tell me what you see,” Anette repeated as she looked at Cyneah.
Cyneah took a deep breath and lifted her hand. She could not see her hands, but the moment her hand brushed through the wisp of white-colord energies, she could suddenly see the silhouette of her hands. This surprised her and almost brought tears to her eyes.
“I-I… There’s a lot of white mist around me. And… when I try to t-touch it, I-I can see my hand,” Cyneah replied, her voice full of emotions.
Anette smiled and nodded her head, “You are in the right track. The white mist you see, is the color of the energy in the surroundings that your magic attracted. It differs in each person. Fire magic attracted, red energies, Water magic attracts blue energies and so on. Of course, there are cases where Fire magic attracted orange energies or even blue energies. It will all depend on the nature of that mage’s Fire magic.”
Hearing Anette’s explanation, Kyran nodded in agreement. He already knew about this. He had read a research study about the concept of energies back in Stella’s study. A mage’s personality could also affect the very nature of their magic, thus, the varying shades of magic arrays.
“Now that you can see the color of your magic energy, try to focus and tell me what you ‘see’ if I do this,” Anette told Cyneah.
Anette encircled the magic energy within her and absorbed the surrounding energies that responded to her magic.
In Cyneah’s view, a silhouette slowly formed around the light in front of her. Her eyes widened in amazement as wisps of light-brown mist spread out from the silhouette.
“I can see a different color mist a-and I think I see you, Master,” Cyneah replied excitedly.
“Good, you’re seeing the energies clearly. But this is thanks to the array we are in right now. Don’t worry though, you have the ability to see it. Soon, you will no longer need the assistance of the array to see the energies. If you master the use of magic sense, you will be able to control your magic energy and fill your surroundings. When that happens, you will develop a way to ‘see’. Although, what you will see will only be silhouttes in black and white color,” Anette explained.
“It is more than enough. I will do my best,” Cyneah replied.
“Alright,” Anette smiled and added, “Let’s move to the next part.”
Cyneah nodded enthusiastically. She had never thought that she could finally see again by learning the use of magic sense. The thought excites her. She would not be able to see in full colors because she was still blind after all. But none of it matter, as long as it would help her ‘see,’
“Now, I want you to imagine the mist expanding around you,” Anette told Cyneah.
Once more, Cyneah nodded and did what she was told. To be honest, she had no idea how to expand the mist. But if it was only to imagine, it was within her capability.
Before she could start, however, Anette continued to guide her, “Picture the mist forming a small circular area inside you. Then imagine it growing in size. Do not be afraid if that area expands out of your body. Simply guide it as you do so.”
Cyneah took a deep breath and pictured a semi-transparent circle inside her made of the white-colored mist. As soon as she started imagining it, the mist around her moved according to what she was imagining.
The circle had expanded out of Cyneah’s body and soon passed through Anette. The moment it did, Cyneah almost yelped in surprise. She felt the structure of Anette’s body as well as every object that was inside her ‘circle.’
Cyneah continued to expand the circle. It even expanded out the array and reached where Kyran, Nolan, and Zephyr were. However, when the circle passed through the three, her brows furrowed at once.
“This…”
Anette had seen what had happened. She did not say anything and let Cyneah continue.
“Master… B-Behind me, I felt something passed through my circle but… I couldn’t make out its form,” Cyneah said.
Looking over the three people behind Cyneah, Anette shook her head at them. Obviously, Cyneah could not make out their form because they had concealed their presence. Mages who were adept in using magic sense could still find traces of others even when they hid, but to Cyneah, who had just started learning, there was no way for her to find these traces.
These three were simply bullies. They could have at least humored them and let Cyneah sense them.
Anette did not know that Kyran was not concealing himself like Nolan and Zephyr. Cyneah always had trouble feeling him out. She could not even see his ‘light.’
“Ignore them,” Anette told Cyneah, giving a disapproving look at the three. She added, “Such uncooperative bunch.”
Anette let Cyneah continue expanding the ‘circle’ until finally, a few minutes later, she told her, “You can stop now.”
As soon as Cyneah stopped, she felt exhausted.
“Here, drink this first,” Anette took out a small vial of energy replenishing potion and gave it to Cyneah.
The potion Anette gave her was a newly concocted solution adjusted to fit her body constitution. If not, who knew what kind of improvement Cyneah’s body would undergo.
From what Kyran had told Anette, Cyneah looked like a skinny child of around ten years old. But only a few days of not seeing her, she had changed so much. Anette’s only explanation was the healing potion Kyran first gave Cyneah worked too well for her and managed to heal and even replenish more than her wounds. It was all well and good, but until they confirmed that Cyneah would not suffer any repercussions in the long run, they had to be careful in giving her potions.
After Cyneah finished drinking the potion, her exhaustion slowly alleviated.
Seeing Cyneah’s complexion had gotten better, Anette continued with the lesson, “The two things I asked you to do, are two concepts of magic sense. The first one is the forming of magic sense, and the second one is control. For the next days, you will have to practice these two.”
Cyneah nodded her head.
“Alright, rest for a bit before trying to do it on your own.”
“Thank you, Master.”
“No need for formalities,” Anette replied with a smile. She stood up and looked at Kyran. She knew he wanted to learn how to use magic sense and wondered if he wanted to try it within the array.
Before Anette could say anything, Kyran suddenly said, “The expansion of the magic sense, why does it have a similar concept of creating a domain.”
“Because it is through the help of magic sense that one can form their domain,” Nolan answered.
‘Domain?’ Cyneah wondered. She did not ask aloud in fear that Kyran would get annoyed thinking she was repeating his words.
Anette nodded her head in agreement, “Yes. It is one of the reasons why magic sense is very important to us mages.”
Kyran immediately frowned. He recalled the time when a burst of magic erupted inside him when he fought Malek. An isolated area had appeared around him, and Stella commented it was his ‘domain.’ He had almost forgotten that part because right after it happened, he fell unconscious.
Anyway, if what they said about magic sense was true, how did he manage to form his domain when he had no idea how to use magic sense? Then again, he had never managed to replicate that domain again. So maybe that was a one-time incident because he got pissed?
When Nolan saw Kyran’s frown, he could almost predict what would happen next. The kid would surely start a series of Q&A discussions which would not end until he was satisfied.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Nolan immediately shifted the topic. “First, focus on learning magic sense.”
Kyran looked at him in silence. He was not planning on asking them more questions. He was in doubt, true, but he had already learned his lesson of wanting to know the answers at once. He already decided to keep a mental note of things he heard first and sort them afterward. After sorting everything according to their importance or urgency, he could focus on those first.
The matter of creating a domain was not urgent on Kyran’s agenda. He knew he would learn it eventually. To be precise, he would understand how he could summon his domain again. What Nolan said was true. He had to first focus on learning magic sense.
“You can practice inside the array so you can better see the energies,” Anette told Kyran.
Cyneah straightened after hearing this. She recalled what Kyran said to her early in the day, that he too did not know magic sense.
‘Does this mean, we’ll be learning together?’ She wondered.
The idea both made her happy and, at the same time, worried. If she lagged, wouldn’t that be embarrassing?
“I’ll try,” Kyran agreed.
He approached the array and stood a few feet away from Anette and Cyneah. Without bothering to sit, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Recalling what Anette had said, Kyran circulated the magic inside him.
Soon, the energies inside the array stirred and moved toward him.
‘Feel the energy in the surrounding that responds to my magic,’ Kyran repeated in his mind.
The moment he thought this, an invisible switch seemed to have been opened, and soon the energies in the surroundings all rushed into him.
“This…!” Anette gaped in shock.
Nolan also straightened as he watched wide-eyed as the energies, regardless of their color rushing into Kyran.
Even Cyneah could feel something was amiss.
Only Zephyr looked normal as he snorted at their expression.
“My Master has the power of nothingness. What did you expect?”