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Part One

Any level of monetization is great. All edits are acceptable. Credit SplashiestPig.

A Lesson In Courage

You’re late, little royal.

*listener agrees*

Very well, let’s begin today’s lesson. Do you remember your breathing failsafe?

*listener comments*

Yes, I ask that every lesson. I promise it’s a question worth asking. Now, if you’re ready, we can get into the meat of today.

*small pause*

Did you practice transmutation since our last visit?

*listener states*

Let’s see.

[dull thump]

An ounce of ground pepper. Show me what you can do with it.

*pause*

I see you have been practicing. Almost all of the pepper has been transformed, but you left the bowl intact. That level of control eludes most early magicians.

*small pause*

As promised, if you did well with your last lesson, I’d allow you to pick your next. Try not to bite off more than you can chew.

*listener states*

Lightning? Now, what would an heir like you need with a spell like that?

*listener responds*

Yes, I remember that when you’re powers manifested, you shot lightning. But tell me, do you want to master it for control, or for the thrill?

*listener reiterates*

Masterfully done, young royal. Dodging the question by supposing our deal. I see I’ve taught you well. If you keep that up, you’ll be unstoppable in the royal court.

*small pause*

The trick with lightning, or any spell that utilizes an electrical current, is that the energy wants to go somewhere. Specifically, it wants to ground itself. Be that with water or metal or just the Earth. It’s exceptionally hard to steer lightning because you must spend your focus to ensure that even once it leaves you, you still are in control of it.

*small pause*

When you first manifested lightning, it burned, did it not? That’s because even as it was forming in your chest and evacuating through your arm, it was doing its best to escape through every inch of your flesh.

*small pause*

To ensure that you don’t take your own life and that you keep a relatively small spread, we can choose some specific motions to ingrain into your lightning spell. We’ll make sure that the current never passes through anything essential while still being given time to steep for maximum effect.

*small pause*

When contained in a closed circuit, electricity is mostly stable. It’s when you open the circuit that you can get sparks, jolts, or entire bolts. An easy circuit would be a circle with your arms, but that would lead the lightning straight through your heart and lungs. A circle with your hands would be safe, but with its distance from your core, and relatively small shape, the lightning would take minutes to build to acceptable levels. So, we’ll have to make an external circuit.

*small pause*

Unlike many of our other spells, I am going to explain this entire process to you before you begin. Lightning is dangerous and must be treated with respect, as with all other evocation magic.

*small pause*

First, you’ll partition some of your core energy and focus. I trust you know how to do that without further explanation. Lightning is a less efficient form of energy than magic, so when you transmute your core, you will get a much bigger quantity out than you put in. An exact conversion rate would be near impossible to calculate, so let’s just decide to start small, so you can get a feel for magic to electric changes.

*small pause*

You’ll start moving the energy to one shoulder and arm before you ever start to change it to electricity. I reiterate you need to take this energy to only one arm. Taking it to both arms is possible, but the timings to keep the circuit stable ramp in complexity with every added energy pool.

*small pause*

At this point, you should be quite capable of simply allowing the energy to spark and then using that spark to mass transmute the energy. It’s no different than lighting a fire or producing light, you’re just choosing for the energy to be lightning, not anything else. Now, this is the important part. As soon as the electricity exists, it will attempt to escape. If you’ve got all the energy up to your shoulder or lower down your arm, then the lightning’s quickest escape will be your fingertips.

*small pause*

Flesh and bone aren’t the best conductors, so you’ll have a little time. You need to rush to bring your entire arm around in a circle. The bigger the circle, the stronger your bolt will be, but of course, bigger circles are harder to close in time. A happy medium must be applied, but you will have to decide on the fly.

*small pause*

If you fail to close the circle, especially if you used a lot of magical energy input, the lightning will fry your arm as it escapes to the ground. And that’s if you're lucky enough to keep it from jumping to your abdomen. As I said, lightning is dangerous, and the fact that no one got hurt the first time you conjured it was incredibly lucky. If you wish to learn a simpler spell, I would not fault you.

*listener denies*

Very well. Now, when I spoke of closing the circle, I meant it in more ways than one. Not only do you need to get your physical hand to return to the same place it was, but to allow for a stable external circuit, we’ll be casting a secondary spell to contain the lightning. You can think of it as a modified version of telekinesis. As the lightning sprouts from your fingertips, you’ll be sending your pale hands to hold it in place. They can’t hold the energy forever, but they can keep it still for a few moments.

*small pause*

If all is done correctly, you’ll see a warm blue glow wherever your fingers pass by. It’ll be like putting a quill and ink to the air itself. When you’re “drawing” your circle, try to keep it as round and smooth as possible. And above all else, make sure you connect back to where you began.

*small pause*

That’s the first half of the spell. As you can see, lightning requires a large number of steps to use efficiently. Once you’ve completed the circuit, the electricity will not seek grounding nearly as much. The vague tug will be there, but your modified telekinesis will be able to hold up against it easily. You can allow the electricity to spin for as long as you’d like. You can’t really make it any stronger or weaker at this point. That was mostly dependent on magical input and the size of your ring. This moment is a moment of rest. A chance to aim and prepare to fire.

*small pause*

I’ll mention now that, should you ever realize that lightning was a bit excessive for your situation, you can fire it at the ground and simply be done with it. But never attempt to take it back into your body. While it could theoretically be recovered back into magical energy, I promise, the risk presented completely invalidates the worth of that trade.

*small pause*

When you have your ring, you’ll find you can move it around with the same process that keeps it contained. Simply allow your grip to ease on one side, and the push of the current will move the ring. To aim, you must ensure that yourself, the lightning ring, and your target all exist in one straight line. Curving your shot is possible, but we will not be discussing it any time soon.

*small pause*

To fire, psychically strike a portion of the ring. You need to do this hard enough to sever the connection of your ring. The side the energy is flowing from will then push forward in whatever direction you’ve struck it in. Since the circuit is broken, it will be unstable, and will reak havoc on the first grounded object it finds.

*small pause*

So to review, partition your energy. Transport it to your arm. Transmute it. Begin to trace a circle, while ensuring you hold the energy in place. That step is the hardest and the most important. Complete your circle. Aim. And fire.

*small pause*

This will be the last chance before it could be too late. If you wish, we could stop and practice something else. You have nothing to prove, and you don’t have to master lightning so early in your magic career.

*listener rejects*

So be it. I’ll be on standby. I can heal your injuries, but death would be much more challenging. Try to stay in control.

*small pause*

Breathe.

*small pause*

[crackling]

There’s the energy, create your circle, now!

*small pause*

[crackling]

Not the roundest circle, and it’s clear you do not grasp the concept of full surface area telekinesis yet, but this ring is passable. I set up a target across the room while we spoke. Now’s your chance to aim.

*small pause*

Deep breathe, then strike the ring and watch your work play out.

*small pause*

[thunder]

*small pause*

Impressive, young royal, I didn’t-.

*small pause*

Young royal, I don’t mean to alarm you but, your demonic traits are showing.

*listener looks*

Hey, calm down. There’s no need to work yourself into a tizzy!

*listener panics*

Please young royal, you’re fear is going to cause something that you may not like. You need to calm down. Use the breathing exercise.

*listener panics*

[fire burns]

Young royal, you’re going up in flames! Focus on me! Breathe with me!

(Deep Inhale)

(Multiple Small Exhales)

*small pause*

(Deep Inhale)

(Hold)

(Multiple Small Exhales)

*small pause*

(Multiple Small Inhales)

(Hold)

(Long Exhale)

*small pause*

(Deep Inhale)

(Long Exhale)

[fire fades]

Here, let me get a look at you.

*small pause*

Only a little singed. You’re lucky. You seem to put up a natural mental ward whenever you panic. Probably a side effect of your time learning swordplay.

*small pause*

Actually, you may want to thank whoever trained you. I hadn’t gotten to see you panic before but with what I saw now, it’s clear. That mental ward is the only reason you didn’t kill yourself when you first transformed. It’s probably what allowed you to aim the lightning enough to save that maid too.

*pause*

I understand you’re shaken, but you did well. You may have missed the target, but only by a foot or so. Considering the volatile nature of lightning, and that this is your first time, you did masterfully.

*pause*

I notice you didn’t panic when the lightning spurred from your fingers, nor when you fired it. It was the realization that your disguise had reverted that troubled you. Would you care to talk about it?

*listener dodges*

That’s a low blow, to dodge the question with a question. But I’ll play your game. Your disguise reverted because you partitioned your energy, but not your focus. I’m sure you tried to divide it, and you did for a time, but when you fired the lightning, you became too single-minded. Clearly, all you thought about was the lightning, and you put nothing into maintaining your illusion. In addition to this, I imagine that you probably link strong magic and demonic traits subconsciously. So when you performed the magic, that was enough to reset your internal image of yourself.

*small pause*

You can simply restart your illusion. It might even be good for me to observe what ruts you’ve fallen into when casting magic without my guidance. But I want my questions answered first. Why did knowing your spell fell through distress you so much?

*listener states*

Oh, sweetheart.

*speaker hugs listener*

You don’t need to be ashamed of yourself. There’s nothing wrong with you. Subjectively, everyone is perfect, and objectively, you are better than them. Look at what you can do. You can do real magic. Anything you want is at your fingertips. With a little learning, you could literally do anything you put your mind to. Why would you be ashamed of that?

*listener states*

(sigh)

Sometimes I forget how young you are. I hope I haven’t done permanent damage by allowing you to hide behind your old visage. You need to understand that what you are is just as good as what you were. In fact, I think I know what we’ll be doing as our next lesson.

*listener questions*

I’m sorry because I know you won’t like it, but this had to be dealt with soon enough. An internal struggle like this will only lead to strife.

*small pause*

You won’t be transforming back today. You may in the morning, but for the rest of the afternoon, into the evening, you’ll be staying in your demon form. I want you to dress up. As if you were going to a ball. Where your best clothes, don your crown, and keep your skin and horns exactly as they are. Then we’re going to take you to the royal court, and after, parade you through the streets. This will happen once a week, whether I’m there or not until you’re comfortable being red all of the time.

*listener objects*

I’m sorry, this isn’t up for negotiation. I’m in charge of your magical training, and clearly, if I don’t resolve your self-doubts, you’ll be a threat whenever your illusion slips. I’ve tried to soothe you with my affirmations, from what I understand your parents and friends have been mostly supportive, but you haven't gotten any better. You’re still ashamed of yourself, and I won’t have that. Desensitization starts now. Go to your room, change, and I’ll be waiting outside to show you to the court.

*listener laments*

Yes, I know it’s cruel. That’s what you can expect from a demon. I hope you don’t resent me for this, but I will not budge. Go change.