Aeromancy

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Adrain had finally gotten all of his duties squared away for a foreseeable, large chunk of time ahead between the many, many things he had to do as both Headmaster and Duke. He had been wanting to meet up with Yuki to see how she was and help her with her magic but the recent time had been very hard to match up with her since she apparently was getting more involved with the tea business and making her own way in the world. It was quite admirable really, even if the poor matching of schedules made it harder to teach her magic directly at times. He figured Yuki would know how to balance her tutoring since he could only assume there were problems with the mother still.

A message was sent to Yuki and a time coordinated to meet her at the Willow's Meadow at her choosing. Adrain would be there first with Serai behind, and he would surround himself in a sphere of air, floating himself to a hundred feet above the ground waiting for her arrival. Serai meanwhile would choose a sunny spot and hop on a rock to wait. Adrain wondered if Yuki would have mastered the flight spell enough to reach him by now.

[Yuki D'Avranches]

Yuki had been busy the last little bit since she decided to take on more responsibilities with the family business. Between making sure that everyone from the local farmers to the merchants that they did business only had the best quality if her name was going to be attached to it. It left a little time in the day to practice magic but during the evenings mainly the flight spell using it to go from her balcony to just the outskirts of the castle grounds and back again. One night that she couldn't do that she would take an evening walk to the gardens to a secluded section and practice just creating a small twister before going back to her room after and hour and just relax and slowly concentrate on getting an easier control and access to her magic without as much effort.



The day Yuki had received the message she sent a message back to Adrain on the time and date that would work well for her. Once that day came she made sure that everything was clear in her schedule for the day and even given her guard the day off. Heading to the stable she went to the stall that housed her new horse since her one before she had to put do so that he didn't suffer. Much her her mother's dismay she had gotten a winged horse Aolani as she had decided to name her was a mainly black with a white mane and tail with the tip of the wings being white. There was one thing she never told her mother was that the horse was magical and would come to her aid no matter the distance as long as she said the horse's name and called for help.



Checking the saddle on Aolani making sure that it was properly adjusted before mounted the horse. She was still upset that her first present for Adrain had gotten broken and she hadn't had time to get it replaced since it wasn't a simple present she didn't feel like a simple replacement would do with the amount of time that she had placed into getting the present. Walking out of the stable she asked Aolani to take flight so that they could get Willow's Meadow quicker. Once she was a good distance from the castle she took a deep breath and decided to see how well she was gotten a hang of the flight spell. Jumping off of Aolani as she drew the symbol for the flight spell a small giggle left her lips as she glided through the air next to Aolani in case anything happened during the flight.



Reaching Willow's Meadow she saw Adrain floating in the air in a sphere she flew closer to him with Aolani staying close by. Smiling brightly at Adrain as she allowed herself to hover near him. "Good Afternoon Adrain." Feeling the spell starting to wear off she waved to Aolani who came and allowed her to sit side saddle on her back to avoid her falling to the ground.

[Deleted]

Adrain opened his eyes when Yuki spoke, turning and seeing her sit on the side of a flying horse. That was new. He righted himself, moving from a meditative sitting position in the sphere of air to a standing position. He looks at the flying mare and chuckles a little.

"Well, I see you have a new friend. Does he or she have a name?" he says, then looking at Yuki with a warm smile. He admired Yuki in a number of ways, though of late he seemed to have a little more affection when thinking of her. He wasn't quite sure why but he had to keep objective.

"It's good to see you again Yuki, it's been a little bit." he states before moving a bit away, hovering and looking off a bit. "Hopefully you haven't changed your mind about enrollment. Have you been making progress with your magic studies?"

[Yuki D'Avranches]

Giggling a little at the comment about her having a new friend. "Yes. This is Aolani she took a liking to me and me to her." Yuki said thinking back to when she went to buy her. The merchant had said that the mare didn't allow anyone to touch her let alone ride her but she had taken to Yuki and allowed her to ride her.



"It is good to see you again Adrain." She stated as she brushes the mane of Aolani. Quickly shaking her head at the mention of her changing her mind about enrollment. "I have not changed my mind. As for my progress, I have gotten better at the flight spell. I flew a little from the castle walls to here" Hearing Aolani neigh and huff Yuki giggled a little. "With Aolani help of course. She flew alongside me until I got here. I have not been able to practice much other since it's hard to find somewhere to practice from watchful eyes. Mostly it's just been the flying." She didn't see any reason to fly it was hard to for her summon a twister in the middle of the castle garden or training ground without notice and with her taking on more than the full load of her family business she didn't have a reason to use it. Other than the flight spell to help her get from point A to point B faster she had not be able to practice much.

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"Ah that's great then, it's nice to meet you Aolani" he says, acknowledging the flying mare. He didn't reach out to touch the animal knowing mares were temperamental about that sort of contact and didn't want to agitate the animal. He listened to Yuki explain how she was getting better with the flight spell. He thought a little about how to take the lesson for today going forward and then speaks.

"Well you've learned considerably more control if you can handle the flight spell well. Wind doesn't need to be a large, outgoing burst. A compressed pocket of air can do strong things, for example you can conjure a dense wind blade that cuts deeper than steel." he says as he stands a distance away from Yuki and her horse and manifests a howling mass of air in his hand taking the appearance of a blade. "Or you can form a sphere that can explode on impact." he says as he then forms the blade into a sphere and throws it well off to the side, causing a potent gale to erupt a safe distance away for a moment before subsiding.

"Or on a more peaceful side of things, you can use it to change the air temperature to an extent as well as freshen stagnant air. So far I've been having you learn how to use mana, the flight spell was a control exercise. Now you should work on power and control in a tighter package than a strong gale that flows freely. Try forming a sphere of air that is compressed and would release when it impacts."

[Yuki D'Avranches]

Yuki giggled more when Aolani bowed her head and neighed when Adrain acknowledged her. She continued to run her fingers through the mane of her horse while listening to Adrain explain that she learned to control with the flight spell. Now that she thought about it each time she used the flight spell it took a bit less of complete focus for her to use the spell and to maintain it compared when she first learned how to use it. At the mention of using air for other things that flight to create either a pocket of air of a blade that could cut deeper than steel.



As Adrain started to demonstrate she watched carefully wondering if she would ever be able to do something like that. At the mention of things being on the more peaceful side like changing the air temperature was interesting cause it would be a fun way for her to mess with her mother and that Count Leon. Nodding her head at the mention of her trying to form a sphere of air. Closing her eyes for a moment as she let of Aolani's reins trusting the horse completely to not drop her. Thinking back to the first day she learns about the magic she searched herself for her source of mana, moving her hands close together as if she was holding a ball as she opens her eyes as she tried to compress the air into a sphere.



At first, she didn't feel anything happen just the light breeze coming off or Aolani's wings. Taking a slow deep breath, with time she breathes in she pushed the air into her hand as she breathes in she worked to compress it. The first time she got the air to form a sphere form in her hand it disperses and escaped through her fingers. Trying a few more times she was able to form a sphere of air that's been compressed, opening her hand slowly she smiled seeing the swirling mass of air in her hand it looked watching the air swirling around wanting to escape. Looking up at Adrain feeling proud of herself.

[Deleted]

Adrain watched Yuki carefully while she made her attempts to form the sphere of dense air. He watched her mana flow seeing beyond her flesh to her magic circuit, observing the attempts to draw in and control the energy around her, admittedly surprised by the fairly quick progress. He had expected more attempts since this was approaching intermediate territory.

When the mass of air was formed and seemed to be stable, he nodded as he then watched her carefully. "Good, now you can use dense balls of air like this to project to another location and expand the effect. For example, the temperature warming thing should be within your ability but requires a new step I don't know if you've tried yet. You need to add a small infusion of heat through fire elemental mana, but too low to cause a fire tornado to erupt. The reverse is true but with ice mana for lowering temperature. Why don't you try to warm the air around you, but be careful, cancel out the spell if it seems to go awry. You have to think of the way through which to convert the raw mana to air, then from air to fire.'

[Yuki D'Avranches]

Listening to Adrain she wasn't sure if she would be able to do it. Slowly she let the sphere of air dispersed through her fingers. She wasn't even sure if she could connect with the other element but if Adrian thought she could that she was going to try. Taking a deep breath she slowly repeated her process from before as she breathe in pulled at the mana as she breathes out she pushed it around her each time repeating the process until she felt a light breeze around her that wasn't coming off her horse's wings.



Closing her eyes for a moment tried to feel the air around her turning into a warm summer breeze. While focusing her tried to think of the beach in the summer, the fields of grass, the garden in full bloom along with the scent of roses and warmth of the sun on her skin. Slowly she tried to convert the air to fire spending a good five minutes to before she felt as if anything was happening. At first, it felt warm until she felt like her skin was burning opening her eyes quickly as she heard her horse neighing, the laps of concentration canceled the spell. Tears were forming in her eyes from the intense heat that she felt on her arms that she been burnt by flames, looking at her arms she notice that it had turned bright red. Looking up at Adrain trying her best not to let her tears fall. "I am sorry."

[Deleted]

Adrain watched but his eyes erupted with alarm when Yuki had lost control of the spell and it began to sear her arms to some extent. Guilt washed over his face as the mage realized he may have overestimated Yuki's ability: while it was very much possible for her, combined element spells were a little more advanced than was required for the exam. He approached her and frowned, then taking a deep breath.

"It's alright Yuki, I may have been overzealous in asking you to do that level of a spell quite yet. Close your eyes and let me take your hands for a second, you need to trust me on this."

Assuming that Yuki let him do so, he would gently pull her arms out and his eyes would glow brightly, not that Yuki should see them as he then moved his hands up the length of the arms where Yuki was just burned. Yuki would feel an odd sensation as the burning seems to reverse and then disappear as though nothing had ever happened.

Immediately after, Adrain turned away and pulled his hands inward. He looked at them, seeing some small cracking and bleeding emitted from a few points. It wasn't as bad as when he fixed Lucinda's ankle, but it still stung quite a bit. He took a sigh, mentally noting that he needed to learn better execution of that particular spell.

"Give me a moment before we continue." Adrain says as he began to tear a handkerchief, Yuki hearing only slight tearing sounds as he began to wrap the cloth around the worse of the tears. "So, you've been studying the tome I take it, are there any particular questions with regards to the written material for the written exam?" he says to distract himself and Yuki from what he was doing.

[Yuki D'Avranches]

Yuki did her best to fight back to tears, this worst she ever has gotten hurt, not even when she had slipped hot tea on her lap by mistake when she was learning how to properly prepare and serve tea to a guest. Closing her eyes as Adrain said and extend her arm towards him. The moment he took her arm she felt her heart skip a beat before the odd sensation almost as if a cold pack had been placed on her arm as the burn seemed to disappear, she was tempted to open her eyes but kept them close as she felt her the pain disappearing.



The sounds of tearing fabric did worry her a bit. At the mention of the tome, she took some time to think of what she had found a little bit confusing. "There was the part of about compressing one's mana and even moving it around one's body. Also where one can use they natural element to enhance physical attacks. I am not sure how that is possible." She said remember some the examples the book had mention mostly those for wind mages using the air current to do a punch into something that knocked the enemy back.

[Deleted]

Once Adrain had finished binding the tears in his skin, at least the worst ones, he turns back around smiling warmly to try to distract her from any concern she might have had come up from what he was just doing. He thinks for a moment, walking near Yuki in a semi circle to answer accurately before he holds his hand up and a rock wall juts up from the earth near where Adrain stood.

"Compressing one's mana is more an advanced technique used for more powerful spells. Those that have a longer cast time than six verses or mantras usually. As you practice and grow more powerful as a mage, your magic circuit will grow stronger and you will be able to use more magic and consider using such a technique. The risk of compressing mana as a neophyte is that if you lose control it could potentially lead to illness or at worst mana corruption. Think of it as binding threads of mana within a certain point along your circuit and binding them into a larger ball and being able to shift that mass around your circuit. It takes practice, but don't try to do more than four threads at your current level if you must." he says, then looking at the rock wall.

"The enhancement you speak of lends mostly to the more raw form of spellcasting. At the simplest, you pull mana into your body, shift it to your element, and release it as a raw burst from your point of contact at the precise moment. It is possible to use elements beyond your natural with practice, for example..." Adrain says standing back as the mana around him shifts to wind, causing his hair to flow unnaturally and his clothes to do the same as he then lunges at the rock wall. A sonic blast emits for a moment as a powerful gust flows from his hand on contact shattering the rock wall and blowing it forward in a cone of fragments.

"This technique is more to be used when an opponent has crossed within the range you can safely control the situation or cast a spell but you need more than your body can handle mechanically. It's an increasingly popular technique for self defense, partially because it can be flashy and some have made a discipline of Elemental Martial Arts. It is in this that you want power over control at first until you learn the technique then you can try to do something more fancy than a raw outburst of elemental power like a sequence of elemental bursts or something."

[Yuki D'Avranches]

Yuki opened her eyes as Adrain had turned back around she did she eyes followed Adrain as she did a semi-circle around her. She wondered if she did something wrong by becoming interested in some of more advanced techniques that were until Adrain started to explain. Nodding her head at the explanation and that at her current level she shouldn't be trying it. As the next explanation, she watched as his wind seem to almost still around her as she watched it blow Adrain's hair around it cause her cheeks to redden for a moment since it made him look handsome and almost godlike. Still, she continued to watch as he his built the wind up around him and watched that with simple contact with the rock wall caused it to shatter, covering her eyes a little from any of the stray pieces that might have come flying towards her.


"Do you think you can teach me to do that even if only in a small amount?" She asked as her thumbs and index fingers pressed together praying that he would say yes to teaching her. Even if he said no she was going to try and practice it when she could maybe late in the middle of the night when most normal people were sleeping.

[Deleted]

When Yuki asked if he would teach her, he turned around looking at her and smiling confidently, nodding toward her. Upon facing her, Yuki might notice that there were slight red tints on the bandages around his hands but he didn't seem pained by it in particular. He holds his hand up as a thinner stone wall manifests.

"Of course, I wanted to teach you this set of abilities like the controlled wind burst I told you about at the ARC so you can protect yourself when needed. So, while learning this technique, you should try to do it through your feet as a kick so your shoes can protect you while you are understanding it. I don't want you to...well..I suppose a stone wall is largely unneeded at first.." he says, reconsidering seeing that Yuki's shoes might not be the best for this sort of activity and looks at the wall again as the earth once more bends to his will and the stone turns to a firm clay, yellow mana visible for a moment around his hands as the transmutation takes place.

"Anyway...so...you start this by drawing mana in like you are about to cast a spell, but instead of beginning to draw a glyph to direct the mana to, you let it course through your body, feeling the wind flow through and around you, fixating it around your limb and point of impact. You can punch, kick, or release it through other points as a tricky sort of deal like a 'dragons breath' sort of move though I wouldn't recommend doing that unless it was desperate or you completely master the base technique since that could end awkwardly for your teeth or something." he states. "Though the shockwave of letting it flow from all directions would be safe since it goes in all directions and out of your head more than your mouth...but first things first...you need to draw the mana in and turn it to wind whilst gathering the energy in your fist, and when you have enough power for what you want to use, strike and let it flow only from that point in your body. Once you have learned this much you can combine strikes gathering wind to your other hand for a second punch while in the middle of the first." he says, then taking a few steps back to let Yuki make her try.

[Yuki D'Avranches]

When Adrain turned to face her she notices the torn fabric and that some had become tainted dark red. Tilting her head to the right for a moment as she watched it hand then back up to his face noticing that he didn't seem to be in pain but she was still worried since some people tend to hide they pain from others. "Adrain can I see your hand for a second." She asked after he made a thinner wall appeared. If he allowed her to see his hand she would take his hand into her own and place a kiss over the spot that had the slight red tint. "Get better soon." She would then let go of his hands and look up into his eyes for a moment before averting her eyes somewhere else.



She was thankful that he was going to teach her how to the technique to enhance her self-defence. Carefully listening to Adrain as he gave the instructions on how to perform the technique. Closing her eyes she as she did her breathing excises before slowly drawing the mana in with each breath and out until she felt comfortable enough to direct it through her body. Placing her right foot back, with her hands on her chest as she slowly pushed the wind around and through her body almost as if she was just breathing. Turning her body to the side as she pivots on her left leg as she brought her right leg up to the kick at the clay wall. During this her dress hitched up revealing her baby pink silk chemises, this causes a minor break in her focus causing the mana to dispel into the air which resulting in her slipping and falling onto her backside.



Realising her position causes a blush to rise to her cheeks as she quickly brushes her dress down to cover up. The pain from the fall didn't register with her since she was she embarrass that Adrain might have seen her undergarments, it was different when she was in the springs since she was in swim clothes until her top was swiped. Still, this was more embarrassing compared to that moment since others were also naked at the time. Her eyes turned to Adrain looking up at him, as she slowly pushed herself off the ground. "I guess I need to learn a little proper self-defence."

[Deleted]

Adrain indulges Yuki at first, but his face reddens slightly when she kissed one of the injured spots as if she were a mother tending to a child or something along those lines. He closed his eyes and laughed softly, looking at Yuki for a moment. "You've grown a lot, come a long way from the girl that I was afraid might make a terrible decision to a strong woman."

As Yuki made move to begin a kicking motion instead of a punching one in spite of his initial correction, he gave her space to do as she wished. When the lack of proper clothing for this sort of activity was evident, he averted his eyes after he got flashed, but noting that she was losing stability by watching the flow of mana get disrupted in her, he conjures a cushion of air to catch Yuki as she fell, keeping her from completely hitting the ground too hard.

"Well, like most skills it takes some practice to master. If you use your hands for punching motions it'll at least prevent seeing your undergarments...hah." he says, then leaning back a little against a nearby tree. "When you are ready, how about trying to use your hands to strike the wall with a burst of air?"