“I’m mage, Isai. What I do is mostly illusion. I will admit, my illusions are considered some of the best in my world, but I kind of had a knack for it from childhood.”
“Julija, you had a knack because your illusions aren’t tricks or deceptions, they are real. There is no doubt in my mind that your father is aware of this. Most likely, he discovered it when you were a child. Rather than allow you to realize what was happening, he fostered the idea that you were extremely good at illusion.”
She shook her head. “I practiced all the time. I still practice.”
He stepped back and indicated the wall behind him. “Build yourself a pool from the rock.”
She frowned and circled around him slowly, studying the rock surface and the smaller stones on the floor of the chamber. “I don’t understand what you mean.”
“Everything around you has properties. You can manipulate those properties. You do it all the time when you’re building what you think are illusions. If it was merely an illusion to widen the crack in the rock at the entrance to the cave, how would you slip your body through? If it was illusion to make your body paper thin, how would the reality of it work?”
She frowned up at him. She hadn’t thought of that. “I’ve used magic spells my entire life. They’re second nature to me. Magic can create the things you’re saying I do as a Carpathian.”
“Magic can do a lot of things, but can it build you a pool?”
Once again, she took her gaze from Isai to study the rock. She lifted her hands and began to weave together a spell to gather the smaller pebbles into a basin to begin her build. Before she could utter a single word, he caught her wrist and pulled her hands down.
“In your mind, build what you want.”
“I was doing that.” She glared at him. “You stopped me.”
“You are using magic as a crutch. There is no reason to use it on something so simple as creating a pool for you to bathe in if that is your wish. You can give yourself a shower without taking one. You can change your clothes. Build it in your mind. See yourself clean and refreshed. Design the clothes you want to wear. It all takes place in your mind first.”
“I do that.”
“I know you do, that is how your illusions are so perfect. You already have built whatever it is you want in your mind and then you come up with your spell. I’m telling you, you do not always need that spell.”
“You use it for your safeguards.”
“Because we were taught that was how best to ensure we were safe when we went to ground. Over the centuries, all of us have changed those weaves and made them stronger, using our own abilities to strengthen our guards so we can rest easy in the ground. Had we not done so, Xavier would have long ago found a way to eradicate our species.”
Julija had to agree with him. She took a breath and once again studied the wall, a tendril of excitement sliding down her spine. Was it possible? Could she do what Carpathians could do? If that were so, then her magic would add to that power . . . She broke off her thoughts, elation causing a little thrill of anticipation.
Isai nodded at her. “You can do this.”
Could she? Something very simple. She considered what that might be. She wanted her pool wide enough that she could turn around in it easily. She stared at the rocks, feeling for them, studying how each was formed. Magma from long ago had crystalized. The granite had traces of various minerals such as feldspar and quartz with bits of others as well.
Using the rock, in her mind she began creating her dream pool. She closed her eyes and, keeping the build in her brain, simply manipulated the properties of the rock, heating them so they ran together again, forming a wide, thick wall that was just a little deeper than her waist. She layered her granite there until she had exactly what she wanted.
Julija had always enjoyed creating things and she’d spent hours in her mind, building the things she wanted. It never occurred to her that she could accomplish the things she wanted without magic. In her creation, water ran from the wall into her pool, the temperature perfect for a refreshing shower. She paid attention to every detail,