It had turned out that I had sort of messed up. I had used something that appealed to the queen and had managed to slip inside the emotional part of her mind. It felt really weird. It seems that is something I shouldn’t be able to do, but Lady Evelyn had related it to something likely related to my wind magic.

  The goblin agreed, describing my mana as something very unique, at least compared to other humans. Not that Alyssa or Lady Evelyn or even Baroness Malatise had noticed. It was apparently something very subtle and hard to pinpoint. Even the goblin could only say I was different, not explain why.

  That tea party was stressful. Lady Evelyn was also mad that I didn’t refuse the request from the princess. At present, I have virtually no idea what it was about, which means it may be something I dislike. She said the princess was a fairly good person, but my mistake was trying to discourage her gently. Moments like that require more hard nos right from the start.

  I think most of all, I hated how everyone was right. From Christopher and everyone else I had met, they had all said that my journey is only going to get harder if I neglect my education, and I didn’t want to admit they were right. I’m an adult, but I have barely been an adult for a full season! Wasn’t life supposed to be a bit nicer to me for at least one year!

  Testing with Lady Evelyn, Alyssa, and even the goblin, I didn’t enter anyone's mind as easily as I had with the queen. So we had come to the conclusion that it was a fluke, based on my guess that she enjoyed cranes.

  The training ground was actually underground, carved from a special rock that was highly resistant to magic. The area served as an emergency shelter, and when we arrived, I could see why. It was huge. Bigger than all of Hatula, and pretty much empty. They also had bracelets that tracked whether I used too much magic.

  “Does it feel okay, Lady Julia?” Princess Catherine sked. She had let us in and gave me and Alexandrea access to these bracelets. They resisted the magical flow to make magic safer to use. Since my guards were with me tonight, that meant I would get to hear my name again.

  I nodded. “It feels fine.” If it felt like anything, I would have said weird. It didn’t stop my mana from flowing to my hand, but it did choke the flow when it went through my wrist. It felt like a nozzle on a bucket at that point.

  My guards being here meant that the knight commander was here as well, unfortunately, but William was distracting him by being trained. These were training grounds after all. The princess sat nearby on a table with tea ready to watch. Elise couldn’t make it today, so it was Alyssa, the goblin, and Alexandra who joined me in the lesson. Not that I imagined the goblin or Alyssa needed lessons.

  “Glow isn’t technically a spell,” Lady Evelyn said. She raised her hand and presented her index finger. A green light appeared. It was like the moment before she cast a spell. “Glow is when you use mana not for a spell effect but to produce light. So, in short, you need to prepare to cast a spell, but simply not do so.”

  Come to think of it, every time I had seen magic cast, there was a light beforehand. Wait, except… what was it, when Alyssa used gale sense? Alexandra was concentrating hard, and I realized that she was already trying to produce glow. Aaa, I was distracted!

  Well, it really wasn’t all that different than when connecting to others, like with the exercise. I pictured a flame instead, and a yellow glow appeared on my finger. “I did it?”

  Lady Evelyn nodded. “But you can also change its color. Can you manage that?”

  I mean, picturing the flame in my mind changing color was reasonably straightforward, and when I did, the color on my finger shifted as well. That was easy! “Got it.”

  Looking at Alexandra, I realized that she hadn’t managed it yet. She seemed to be struggling just to get her mana to her hand.

  “What do these bracelets do?” I asked.

  “They act as resistance, but for an adult, the effect is practically nil until you get to a certain threshold, so it is a lot harder for Alexandra, but that is why I gave it to her, so that she can get the experience. After all, a basic glow doesn’t require special training circumstances.”

  “Even I could do a basic glow as a child,” Alyssa said.

  Unfair! How does Alyssa know all this cool stuff? “Alyssa, just how much more did you know as a child!”

  “Well, gale sense,” she said, touching the bottom of her lip. “Well, I had finally got it when I was twelve. Does that still count as a child?”

  Lady Evelyn raised her brow. “You had accomplished gale sense by age twelve? That is actually quite the achievement. Gale sense is more of a military skill; was it taught to you?”

  Alyssa shook her head. “No, I read about it in a book and just tried to do it myself.”

  “That is, frankly ridiculous,” Lady Evelyn said. “You are in charge of teaching, Lady Julia, gale sense.”

  “What even is gale sense?” I asked, interrupting.

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  “Well,” Alyssa said as she scratched her chin. “It is basically a net you cast that is very sensitive to the air moving. So when moving air touches your net, you can feel it. Or maybe a spider is a better example? I have never tried to explain it before.”

  “You good enough to dodge with it?” Lady Evelyn asked.

  Alyssa nodded. “Or at least, I think so. I have never tried in an actual fight.”

  Lady Evelyn twirled her finger, and Alyssa sat down with her head facing away from us. She then pointed her finger at the back of Alyssa’s head. “Zuflackern!”

  A yellow light that looked like glow appeared and raced toward Alyssa, but she leaned her head to the right, and it missed her. It struck the ground with a small pop.

  “I did stuff like this as a kid, but it is a lot harder to use it in combat,” Alyssa said.

  I didn’t know what to do or say. I kept thinking Alyssa was like me because she was from a small village, but I kept getting shocked time and time again. “Lady Evelyn, when next we travel, I would like to pass by Trent at some point.”

  Alyssa blushed. “You don’t need to do that!”

  “You have been casting spells since you were twelve, apparently, and self-taught! I wish to see what the environment was that crafted you,” I said. I just really needed a proper frame of reference for how different Trent was from Hatula.

  “Gale sense isn’t a spell; it is a technique, similar to glow,” Lady Evelyn said. “As impressive as it is for a twelve-year-old to learn on her own, it is not nearly as insane as learning a spell on your own would be.”

  “I see,” I said. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure I understood the difference between a technique and a spell. As far as I could tell, both just violated the natural order in really cool ways.

  “I did it,” Alexandra said, smiling as she held up a yellow flicker over her index finger.

  I smiled. “Great job.”

  “And now, we might as well teach you both, the way glow may one day save your life,” Lady Evelyn said as she raised her hand, and above her, a burst of red light appeared. Wow! It was dazzling. “This is glow call! It is used as a distress call to signal you need help.”

  “That doesn’t seem particularly useful inside, though,” I said.

  “It can go through solid surfaces. You do need to understand how far you intend to send it, but we can practice that later. For now, just try throwing it a couple of dozen feet from your current position,” she said.

  “Uh… how?” I asked.

  She simply shook her head. “This is the difference, a spell I could just give you an incantation, but for techniques, you have to figure out how to visualize it.”

  I looked at my hand. I saw what she did, but I felt just saying that in my head wasn’t going to work. Hmm. I thought back to the wolves back on the road. That first spell she did. What did she call it? Beschuss. Energy began flowing into my hand. Oh, that felt so weird; the flow was being choked a lot. Was glow call this mana extensive?

  I pointed my hand directly up. A little yellow dot shot up.

  “Alyssa!” Lady Evelyn shouted. Alyssa then tackled me to the ground, and a moment later, thunder roared in the room. The confined space made it so much worse! Ouch!

  Dust was dispersing.”What the heck?” I asked.

  Alyssa helped me up as Lady Evelyn rubbed her brow, and Alexandra looked up with fascination.

  “Don’t think of named spells while using techniques!” Lady Evelyn shouted. “Using a mid-tier explosion spell as a beginning. Thankfully, the bracelet seemed to have shocked out most of its power.”

  “That was reduced power?” Alexandra asked. “Frightening.”

  “I concur, my ears are still ringing,” the goblin said.

  “That is simply because of the closed space. Any amplified sound would feel much stronger. In terms of noise, it is similar to what we would expect in the world. But given that the ceiling is magic-resistant, the power was reduced. You can see no damage was done.”

  “I must confess, my Lady. When you said we should train Lady Julia with the magic bracelet, I thought it was overkill for something like glow call. But, I seem to have been proven wrong,” Alyssa said.

  “Might I make a suggestion?” the goblin asked.

  Lady Evelyn nodded.

  “Given that she has the bracelet. Would it not be wise to teach her a minor attack spell? Like Zuteilt? I imagine it would help her learn the safe level of mana she can unleash at the moment.”

  Lady Evelyn just rubbed her brow for a moment. “That might be a good idea. Rushed learning, I suppose, requires different strategies.”

  “Can I learn as well?” Alexandra had asked. “Or is this fall beyond what a child is allowed to learn?”

  “No, that is fine. With supervision and a bracelet, Zuteilt is perfectly reasonable to learn,” she added.

  Alyssa grabbed some wooden blocks and set them up about fifteen feet away. She then went to instruct Alexandra, with Lady Evelyn instructing me directly.

  “This is a basic cutting spell. Spells with the prefix zu are beginner-friendly spells. All of your practice for mana control is for this,” she touched the bracelet. “It glows white when it begins choking your mana. Your goal is to launch this spell with as much power as you can gather, but not triggering it to glow. When you can do that a hundred times, I will feel safe permitting you to use zu class spells at your own discretion.”

  Hmm. Okay. I think I could handle this.

  “Zuteilt!” Alexandra said as she winked at me. I didn’t see anything, but her wooden block shifted a bit and had a mark on it.

  “But she struggled with glow! How did she manage that so fast!” I asked.

  “Once you learn how to push past the bracelets' choking effect, it isn’t hard to do it on demand; stamina is where she will lose to you. Plus, this test is in her favor; it takes most of her effort to reach the threshold. You will easily exceed it if you don’t focus!”

  I wanted to pout. But I suppose it was fine for Alexandra to do something better than I. “Zuteilt!” I shouted as mana began focusing, oh wait, shit! The choke was so fast! Then it was like a gentle push against my fingertips, and the block tipped over, a mild notch in it.

  ‘Too much,“ Lady Evelyn said.

  I took a deep breath. I could do this! I knew I could!