him an edge in the coming battle, but it would take some of hers away. He pushed that out of his mind, it would only do that if he could cast it. He focused on the concepts to increase his speed, strength, and perception, to enhance his body. One day he’d be able to do it directly with nature magic sorcery, but that day was a long way off. His Shar may have just saved his life, or at least given him a better chance.
Sneaky demoness.
He started to cast the spell, the weirdly liquid and alien tongue felt strange falling from his lips, but he didn’t falter. His head felt strange too, as he channeled his raw magic into the spell, and the spell formed its purpose even as it was transformed to nature magic. He did have one advantage over other apprentice’s, his focus had been extremely well trained over the centuries of his childhood, and he was no stranger to magic, just spells and spell-forms.
That didn’t stop his first attempt from fizzling however. He frowned when the spell form destabilized and fell apart.
“What’d I do wrong?”
She said, “Just try again. Your focus needs to be balanced when casting a spell. Between the component, the end result, and on the spell itself to maintain the spell form. Failure to meet the minimum focus on any of those three things, and the spell will fail.”
He nodded. He must not have been focused enough on the spell forming.
He tried again, and again, and again, but continued to fail.
Shar cast a monitoring spell that would allow her to see what was going on, and he tried again to the predictable failure.
Shar frowned, “You need to close down your bonds before casting a spell. Small traces of life and water magic are corrupting the spell form. It doesn’t take much to make things go wrong.”
He sighed, that meant he couldn’t shield himself while casting? Well, he already knew he’d have to cast it right before battle was joined, he certainly couldn’t muster the focus during battle to cast a spell anyway. Not without leaving himself wide open.
He tried again, that time blocking the bonds temporarily.
The spell form was a lot steadier from the start, and as it solidified and sunk into his body. He felt strength and deep awareness flood his body and mind as it took effect. He also felt the spell steadily draining a small amount of magic constantly to maintain it, while he opened his bonds back up.
“I’ve got it.”
Shar tilted her head and gave him a look.
He enunciated slowly, “I’ve. Got. It.”
She smirked, “I noticed. Sorry about that, I’ve never trained an elder dragon in wizardry before, that’s a step no others would have to take. Come to think of it, I’ve never trained anyone before.”
It was strange, her speech was entirely too slow. He cut off the flow of magic feeding the spell form, and the strength and perception flooded out of his body, leaving him feeling wrung out and dull witted for a few seconds.
She said, “For the rest of the week, you should cast the spell and get used to fighting while enhanced. You’ll want to be able to control it, and it will take a little time for your mind to adjust so you’re not constantly breaking things. Like doors, walls, or castles. I’ll also be teaching you more words of course.”
He nodded, “Thanks, love. This should help.”
She smirked, “Need to keep my prey healthy and alive.”
He rolled his eyes, and she giggled.
She asked, “Tell me, Muranth, before we end our session for the day. What’s the first thing that comes to mind about April?”
He frowned at her teasing question, but played along, “She’s my best friend, I love her like family.”
Sometimes more than that, but he couldn’t have that, and that didn’t make his statement untrue.
She grinned, “How about Nysa?”
“She’s fiercely loyal, incredibly intelligent, and I love her.”
She nodded, “The twins?”
He smirked, “Shy, sweet, and lovely. Also, fiercely violent when any of us are in danger. I love them too, I love all of you, and you all awe me in different ways. You keep me on my toes, and you’re as wise as your unsurpassed beauty. I love you. What’s this about?”
She tilted her head with a lovingly teasing smile, “You didn’t mention life, water, or nature magic, nor spell craft. I’d venture to say you didn’t even think of those things your bonded bring you. Isn’t that interesting?”
Then she turned and walked