It took a moment for their eyes to readjust to the darkness from the bright flash of light, but when their eyes did readjust Ty and Valentine stared at one another in amazement and shock at the reaction the Elemental had to Ty’s magical energy. The Elemental on the other hand was standing there with its arms crossed seemingly in annoyance at their dumbfounded looks “Great job on focusing Ty, but you put utterly too much power into the working of magic. You need to work on greatly reducing the amount of energy you put into a spell” it said to him still using the same monotone voice “so that when you cast a spell you don’t overdo it, or if it backfires you won’t have a result that is so disastrous to you or those who are around you. Worse yet your spell might take on a life of its own draining your magic resulting in your own death.” It then turned to Valentine unfolding its arms and said “You did well in the execution of your given task, not overdoing the power, and forming it into the shape and size I asked for though you could have afforded it more power, as you can see though power does take on many different shapes and sizes contrary to your personal belief it can be great or weak no matter how big or small its packaging may be.”
“We have approximately three hours until sunrise so we had better attempt to get as much of our lesson in as possible while we still have time to do so, because we won’t be able to do any more practicing while around any of the Coven members if we are to keep our abilities a secret for any amount of time.” Valentine spoke up finally shaking off his dazed look.
It took most of the next two hours for Ty to adjust his power output so he would not blind anyone as well as reduce the chance of blowing anyone up, and in those two hours Valentine managed to figure out how to condense his magic down to the size that Ty had managed while fluctuating the amount of power the orb held regardless of size. When they were done with the first part of their training that the Elemental had assigned and had gotten its approval of their understanding of lesson, they both had beads of sweat running off every exposed surface, and their clothes were soaked through with perspiration and now drooping on the two young men.
Satisfied at last with their comprehension of the basic control of magic the Elemental continued even further explaining the next step they needed to take. “Now that you understand what a spell needs to be built upon, you need to learn to use that base to cast spells. At first you will need words to instruct the magic to do your bidding but once you have mastered the shaping and control of the spells you cast you will be able to cast a spell by summoning the power and telling it just what you need it to do with a thought. The easiest form of a spoken spell is a spoken rhyme. Such as ‘Light I need to see at night, make it not to dim and not too bright’ the more specific you can be the better formed the spell will become” as it said the spell an orb the size of a baseball appeared next to it then fell to the ground “But if you do not specify in your wording or in your mind what you wish it to do with exact rules and thoughts it will do just what the laws of physics tell it to do ‘The light I summoned needs to float, following me in the air as if tugged by a boat’ and as you can see you can add to spells you have already formed” The orb of light flew up in the air about a foot away from the Elemental, and as it walked around them the light orb followed the Elemental at a short distance. Then it winked out as if by some unspoken command “Now I want the both of you to try to summon a small amount of magic and to create a spoken spell to use with the magic you summon, and imagine the words and measurements you say controlling the magic you summon wrapping around it and forcing it to do as you will. Make up your own spells, and we will see how it works out for each of you, if anything goes wrong I am here to contain and fix whatever problems that may arise.”
Valentine having studied literature and poetry most his long life from within the Coven library found creating a spell using rhyme to be an easy task, and before long he was hovering a few inches off the ground not moving around, stable and in control. Ty on the other hand had only basic schooling in literature including poetry and rhymes but he too had a spell formed in minutes in his mind before he decided it was ready to be used. He relaxed calling for a small amount of magic and saying “We are sweating like pigs as I speak, open the sky and let cool rain now leak. Let it flow now upon the three of us, to wash away this sweat and musk. Stop the rain when we are nice and cool, and prove my rhyme not to make me a fool.” As he finished speaking seeing in his mind as the words of the spell knotted around the magic in what seemed like a very specific knots and symbols he felt the magic take shape and sore into the clear sky, where it turned into a small cloud directly above the three of them. In moments the rain poured down on them cooling the three and washing away the sticky sweat that was covering the two men. It felt as if it was getting to weak to maintain itself so he slowly fed it a little more magic stabilizing it. When he began to feel too cold from the rain it ceased and the cloud disappeared as if it had never been there.
Falling over as his spell to levitate ran out of power Valentine picked himself up brushing off as much of the mud and grass as possible he said “That rhyme was horrid, but it seemed to work out well for both of us. Thank you that felt absolutely wonderful after all that sweating we were doing.”
If it could smirk the Elementals face seemed to depict one as it put a hand on Ty’s shoulder “That was surprisingly perfect young man, though the rhyming was a bit off it was still specific enough to get the outcome you were looking for and it accomplished exactly what you asked of it and unlike Valentines own spell you gave it a limited amount of magic and when it needed more to maintain itself you fed the magic to it as you saw fit.” It then looked at the wet prince who was still covered in mud and grass and said “As well versed as your spell had been you need to learn to leave an opening in the spell you form for you to feed it more magic otherwise when it runs out of the magic you used to cast it your spell will fall apart as you have witnessed firsthand, which could cost you at a crucial moment.”
The night was now fading in the distance and the Elemental began to fade knowing that it was time for the two vampires to head inside away from the approaching sunlight, and the protection the night had given to them “We need to get back or become extra crispy. Thank you for our lessons this evening, and I look forward to gaining more knowledge about magic from you.” Valentine said to the Elemental with a slight bow of his head and a hint of respect now in his voice.
“Return here with the book tomorrow night and we will continue your lessons then, if you keep up your current rate of mental consumption and comprehension of the lessons I have to teach you the two of you will be ready to face any foe well within a weeks’ time” The Elemental was now just a hazy outline of its prior form as it was fading “and when you return here the book will summon me. I suggest that you do not hold onto it because it will burn you with the magical energy it uses to do the summoning. You also do not have to worry about the book being damaged either, it is water proof and cannot be harmed by anyone magical or otherwise.” Then the Elemental was gone and the book was once again blank and no longer glowing on the ground where it had been tossed hours ago.
Ty grabbed the book brushing off the moisture from the grass and shoved it hurriedly into his jeans pocket as he followed Valentine with great speed back to the archways he had passed before when he had left the Covens hidden entrance. At the speed they were running he was cold but dry by the time they got to the entrance. He stopped just inside the mouth of the cave to take in one last bit of fresh air and to look at the now dimly lit forest in front of him with a small glimmer of hope shining in his eyes. Then before the sun could reach over the forest and to him in the mouth of the cave he took off into the darkness of the cave and the musty smelling underground city only steps behind Valentine.
The underground city was cool and smelled of its inhabitants, dead, musty, and lacking any comfort or joy. Ty didn’t like it, but was able to put up with it while he had Valentine to keep him company and distract from the dread of his surro
undings. Though he didn’t trust the vampire prince all that much he knew that he trusted everyone else down there even less. They entered the main hall of the Coven moments after entering the depths of the caverns. It was full of vampires, of all different shapes and sizes each with different colored or different shades of colors glowing in their eyes, all scurrying around in preparation for the upcoming wedding of their prince Valentine and Ty. Everyone they passed bowed to them then went on their way as if remembering something more important they had forgotten. Valentine had grabbed his hand as before and informed Ty that he needed to smile and look happy and excited with a gentle whisper in his ear as they were traveled further into the depths of the city, and Ty did as he was told without questioning him. While he was playing the enthusiastic fiancé to be Ty thought of many things, he thought of his mother and what she might be feeling right now if she was alive, he thought of his lessons he learned and pondered what else he might gain from them, and he thought of what might happen should anyone here find out the truth about their supposed marriage or their newly discovered powers.
Valentine led the way to his personal quarters much deeper in the underground city. The deeper they went the more well kept the surroundings became. Every new entrance that they passed took them further from the sun and seemed less and less like a rough cave-like atmosphere, and more like a well sculpted palace. Ty was soon led into a room by the prince through a grand gold ornate door, and once they were inside alone Valentine let go of his hand and shut the door locking it tightly behind him, leaning against it with a sigh he said “If I was forced to smile any more I think my face would have stuck like that. Damn my cheeks really hurt now!” He rubbed his handsome face as he walked over to an overpriced and overstuffed modern looking burgundy couch and plopped down sinking into its large cushions “I cannot believe I am getting lessons as well… This is all quite amazing, and to think you thought I had saved you just because I had a man-crush” snorting with a bit of laughter “obviously I knew what I was doing, though I could not have guessed the outcome would lead to something like this. I just did not think that it would lead to so many new and powerful things for the two of us.” He winked at his would be partner.
Looking around him Ty took in the lavish room, the fire place was big enough to use as a walk in closet on its own, and all over the room were expensive and ostentatious looking furnishings and paraphernalia. He shook his head in amusement at Valentines open-mindedness of their pretend wedding and worry free personality; it reminded him of the girl Val he had fallen in love with in the online games he played for years while speaking to her and getting to know her as a person “You sure are dealing with this a lot better than I am. All I know is that I want to find out what happened to my mother and I want to meet my father. Beyond that nothing else matters to me to be completely honest, so forgive me if I don’t share your optimism. I unlike you have lost a lot recently as well as gained a lot, not to mention I am in a strange place with strange people, forced to trust a person who had up until recently been lying to me pretending to be someone they are not.” He walked over to Valentine and knocked his feet off the couch and sat down where they had been resting.
“Though I may not have told you who or what I really was my dear friend, it was me and my personality that you got to know in those online games. You got to see a large part of me that no one else has ever seen, my personality and my likes and dislikes even if you didn’t get the full truth from me at the time, you can’t say I’m not to be trusted, because you wouldn’t be here undead right now if it weren’t for me and the lies I fed you over the time I got to know you. You would be just plain dead, your mother as well with no possibility of her surviving or any chance of meeting your father. If my father or any other vampire had found you before I had, you would be gone, with no chance of doing any good for anyone, your mother and father included. I may come off as over enthusiastic, jovial, or excited even, but I am very scared of what’s to come and worried that it all may fall apart at any moment now. I just hide it and keep it inside around others as I have done with all my emotions my entire life. You have to be closed off around the others around here, because if any of the other vampires see a single bit of weakness in you they will use it to destroy you and take your power or title.” Valentine admitted to Ty’s sheer astonishment.
With every word spoken Ty was seeing more and more of his old friend Val that he recognized and adored while Valentine had masqueraded in the online games surface in front of him. If Valentine had really been Val, Ty would be deeply in love with her even more now. As it was Ty was confused about the feelings he was having at the moment from his friend’s speech and show of emotions. “I am really tired after all that’s happened” he lied “I think we should go to bed so we can be rested for the training tomorrow night.”
Valentine knew he was lying but still he removed himself from the plush couch and fetched a blanket for Ty to cover himself with. After he was sure Ty was at least feigning sleep he stripped and got into bed where he turned out the lights and drifted off to sleep without saying another word.
Ty lay there, and once he was sure that Valentine was asleep he sat up head in hands with mind awhirl. Once he was ready to finally lay down again he stripped his own clothes off out of habit and comfort before he laid back down wrapping the blanket around him. For what seemed like hours though they were only moments, he just laid there and replayed the whole day over and over in his head until he honestly fell asleep not dreaming but delved deeply into sleep like he had never been before.
Chapter: 5
Who’s your daddy?