Growing Pains[Training]

After one last meal at the Gray Manor, Casvallion led Zion out of his own personal estate in the middle of the night. It was quiet and dark out as they flew towards the academy. There were still signs of light coming from scattered parts of the grand school but Casvallion guided a flying carpet around to an area that was close to the student housing but annexed away in a dark corner. There was a generously large windowsill installed which was perfect for making a landing pad one could comfortably stand on without too much danger of falling off unless they panicked or were pushed.

Zion had a strange look on his face as he noticed Casvallion quickly flick his wand causing the window to unlock before slowly opening for them. Unable to hold his tongue, the young magician spoke softly in a suspicious tone, "Didn't you say you arranged for a room? Why are we sneaking in like robbers?" Zion was being overly conscious of being secretly tested again in some way. Casvallion simply smiled before his wrist flourished and red rukh flew from the tip of his wand creating a thin streak of flame that shot into the room accurately striking the wick of a candle. The spark split into two leaving a lit candle before dancing away to light others repeating the process until every lantern and candle in the room had been lit.

The room was now bright and welcoming which revealed its contents clear as day. Within Zion could immediately see many books scattered about. A boyish joy swelled up on his face as his heart filled with excitement. Reading new books and learning new information was one of Zion's favorite things to do. After a brief naked show of how he honestly felt Zion caught himself and cleared his throat. "What? You don't want the room now?" Casvallion teased. "No, I'll take it!" The boy replied before eagerly rushing inside lest the masked magician change his mind.

"Haha, don't worry about us sneaking in like this. At the moment, this room was being held for someone but they've been gone for almost two years now. Since it's out of the way and no one ever goes here I've gotten permission for you to occupy it temporarily. Officially, you are grieving your fathers death and aren't in a state to be seen...but that excuse won't last forever."

The heavy voice Casvallion used at the end made the casual atmosphere his initial tone carried evaporate. Zion swallowed and listened as his mentor continued. "To be frank, I don't trust the teacher the academy assigned you to. Back when I was at the academy with him he was always boot licking and errand running for the worst kind of scum. He's the type who would happily accept a bribe to make it difficult for you to prepare for the Iktiyar." The weight of the situation was made even more clear by the mans speech. Zion wasn't expecting that even the academy teachers would be turned against him.

"I understand. My father's enemies won't make things easy for me."

Nodding approvingly Casvallion turned and moved to leave, but instead of using the flying carpet neatly draped over his left arm he simply waved his wand and flew out into the night air. Zion's eyes widened and he ran to the window to find Casvallion floating there looking back at him. "Stay here for the night. Don't open the door for any reason. I'll come for you at the window tomorrow." With that, Casvallion turned and shot off into the sky at frightening speeds. The direction he left in wasn't back to the Gray Manor. Apparently the masked man had pressing business and a busy night.

Sighing to himself, Zion closed the window and turned the look back at the room. Now that he had a good look there was more to see than just books. ---

To be finished later with an edit.

Not wanting to be under-slept for Casvallion's training tomorrow, Zion decided to hold back his urge to dive into the books immediately. Instead he diligently put out the lights and sat down on the bed before falling backwards feeling mentally exhausted. Zion couldn't say it was a good day, so much had happened and his father was gone. But now he felt some hint of excitement towards what was to come. His mind soon felt like a stone that sunk into a dreamless sleep that seemed to end almost instantly. The breeze of a crisp cold wind blew across the young magician awakening him from his rest. Zion sat up quickly in surprise and looked to the window only to find that it was still dark out. Casvallion was back with the carpet already prepared and floating there for Zion to step aboard.

"Its 5am, time to get up."

Oddly feeling refreshed and awake, the boy yawed and stretched before smiling and leaping out of the room and onto the carpet. After sealing the window they left using the early hours just before dawn to make their way to a large domed structure built onto one of the academy's training fields. The landed at its base just next to a door way built into the large stone structures side. They entered the dome revealing an interior that was seemingly lit by daylight. It was bright and there appeared to be a blue sky but no matter where Zion looked he couldn't find the sun or the source of the light. It seemed to move around in order to avoid his gaze. As a magician he could vaguely see trails of orange rukh lining the false sky if he looked hard enough. The heavenly ceiling only covered the upper part of the dome however and it was clearly walled off on all sides by smooth stone that could only have been created and arranged with magic.

The grounds had various large rock formations spread around creating obstacles but there was still a fair bit of room to move around between them. "This is where I'll be training you today. Last night I called in a favor to a friend of mine. They helped me build this for you and claim it was for one of their spur-of-the-moment critical experiments. As long as we don't break any of the walls it should be good place for you to train in secret." Casvallion said before setting the flying carpet aside and closing the entrance shut behind them preventing anymore light from escaping. Zion slowly stepped out towards the middle of the room looking around curiously, "So what kind of training are we doing?" Zion asked innocently. The sound of the doors lock slamming heavily echoed throughout the domed room and Casvallion slowly turned his head while drawing his ebony white wand.

"Combat Training"

Casvallion's wand drew a horizontal line through the air sending a stream of magoi and black strength magic into the loose dirt. The rukh spread out in a spiderweb covering the entire interior of the dome. Zion was caught by surprise and just stood there for a moment. Combat? He didn't even have a wand or staff! Zion had only ever borrowed Mikael's staff in order to learn a few basic spells. Sadly there was no time for Zion to be worrying about that as Casvallion's spell had already spread to cover not only the ground Zion was standing on, but also everywhere else, there was nowhere to go to avoid it. But surprisingly the black light subsided and nothing seemed to happen as a result.

"Huh? What..."

Zion didn't get a chance to finish asking what happened as the moment he took a step to turn facing Casvallion, the earth in front of him began to move. Dirt and sand rose up and took humanoid shape creating a familiar figure. The same golem had been summoned to shield Zion from the rainfall after Mikael's funeral. Then it was oddly peaceful, but this time it seemed to give off an aura of death itself. The large giant slowly rose one hand and began to slam it down on top of Zion. The doll sprang into action literally jumping out of the way. The giants fist hit the ground causing a large explosion of dust and debris but Zion was safely clear of it. His footsteps on the ground drew the golems attention however and it began to slowly lumber after him.

"Use this!"

The masked man standing on the side lines revealed a modest black staff with a clear crystal ball embedded into the top. He threw it towards the running Zion whom fumbled the catch only to recover it and scramble out of the way just in time to avoid another punch. "This thing is slow but its strides are so large it catches up to me right away. I can't just keep running." Zion thought to himself as he stopped and turned to face the giant. Closing his eyes Zion reached out to the rukh. He wasn't as skilled as Casvallion and producing a spell required more than a simple gesture for the young magician. Zion could sense his body resonate with the strength magic rukh around him lightly as his intent to cast the spell was made manifest by a confident shout.

"Bullet!"

The staff in Zion's hand swished through the air before tapping in the giant's direction. The shout carried with it a surge of magoi through Zion's hand and into his staff where it fed strength magic which encased the staffs head. Air was forcibly compressed and then launched towards the magician's target. The giant punched towards Zion but its arm was blown away by the spell. The giant fell backwards and collapsed into sand seemingly defeated. Zion smiled and Casvallion praised him from afar. "Pretty good for your first time...But how will you handle this?" The masked man drew another line upwards causing four of the giants to emerge one by one in various spots around Zion. He wasn't totally surrounded but he was definitely cornered and outnumbered. Either way the scenario was stacked against him. Zion didn't show an ounce of hesitation this time however as he repeated the act, but this time he spoke a different spell name.

"Bullet Attract!"

Magoi concentrated with much more density at the tip of Zion's wand before unleashing four fist sized balls of strength magic. Tap, tap, tap, tap. Four taps sent each ball flying towards its own designated golem. Almost all at once the sand giants fell. Casvallion's mouth went agape briefly as he wondered what kind of teaching Mikael had given Zion. That sort of performance from someone weeks old was hard for Casvallion to fathom. He had been at the academy for several months before he could cast spells like the one Zion just performed. This talent was almost a little too scary. Regaining his composure, Casvallion sighed and was about to praise Zion and up the difficulty once more. But he was stopped in his thoughts by what unfolded before him.

Following his second spell Zion felt as though every part of his body was in harmony with the strength magic rukh he was communicating with. A film of black light washed over Zion's body and he slowly began to grow and expand in size. Though his proportions stayed the same his fight increased to nearly 2.5m tall! Casvallion was stunned by the advanced magic formulas at play around the young magician, he had never seen anything like it before. However, the 8ft tall Zion stood confidently as if he had known this would happen. Naturally, he had encountered this unique aspect of his body when Mikael first taught him magic. The staff was now more like a large wand in Zion's hand, but it didn't feel right so he slipped the Comunion Rod into his robes before turning to Casvallion with a grin as he spoke with confidence.

"Well, are you surprised? Father called this, "Tuning" and it happens whenever I cast two spells in a row. But father also said it should be possible to tune with other types of rukh too some day."

A taken aback Casvallion hesitated for a moment before making a stern face. The boy seemed to think he'd be impressed but on the contrary this "power" was going to cause a lot of trouble. He was thinking to himself about this when Zion, in his eagerness to show off, spoke up in a respectful tone. "There is one more thing I need to show you about this Strength Tuning...Could you please create one more sand giant for me to demonstrate?" The masked man's jaw dropped. There was more?! What sort of monster body did Mikael create? It was difficult to predict how powerful it will become, but the potential behind it if one were to master all eight types of magic was terrifying. "Very well..." Casvallion said cautiously as he flicked his wand causing another sand golem to begin forming in front of Zion. [

color=red]"I can't stop this one from attacking you though, it's part of a specific spell formation I laid down before hand. It's behaviors were already set to attack anything that moves across the surface of the sand."[/color]

The explanation enlightened Zion on what had been done to the sand with that web-like pattern of rukh. Nodding in affirmation he turned his focus towards the giant as it was completed. It was still larger than Zion but now the difference wasn't nearly as severe. The white haired doll took a step and the giant raised its fist to punch. But Zion expected this and ducked low while stepping past the giant moving to circle around it. As he did, Zion touched the sand giants body over and over places the full surface of his hands across as large a volume of sand as possible. By the time the giant turned around Zion jumped backwards and took a few retreating steps. The golem tried to take a step forward but the magic used to hold the sand together hadn't accounted for the weight of the sand it was manipulating to suddenly increase. At first the effect was subtle as the giant seemed to move a bit slower as it charged over for a second punch. This blow was even more easily evaded and Zion circled his target again laying hands upon it as much as he could in the time he had before needing to back away. After the second pass the results of all that groping around were clear. The sand giant was sluggishly trying to move but parts of its body were falling away out of the spells influence and magoi.

"Enough, you can increase the gravity of things you touch..."

Truly terrifying. Casvallion's spine shivered as his eyes witnessed gravity magic rukh coat the sands Zion touched not because magoi fueled them, but due to some strange resonance it was having with the boys body. "How do you turn it off?" Casvallion asked. If it were a time limit that would make attending classes difficult. "Turning it off is easy. But it costs me a lot of magoi to calm the rukh down and untune." Zion said as he took in a deep breath and relaxed focusing on his rukh and magoi. Energy surgered throughout Zion's artificial magoi system as the various reservoirs released a slow trickle of magoi to satiate the strength rukh. Zion slowly shrunk back to size as he removed the staff from his robe coming to rest on it as he finally reached his original size and the film of black light vanished.

"Phew..."

Zion was obviously winded but didn't seem like he was about to collapse. There was a proud look on his face as he waited to be praised. "That took you ten seconds. It takes less than one to end your life on the battlefield. Can you do it faster? And what kind of magician puts his staff away in the middle of a fight? You are suited to being a strong combat magician one day with that form, but only if you can manage to hold your own weapon." The masked man didn't raise his voice one bit, but the blunt criticism blew the wind out of his sails. His depressed downward gaze answered Casvallion's question. But instead of berating the youth, Casvallion encouraged him.

"You need to practice the speed of your untuning so you can do it so fast you prevent the transformation from happening in the first place. You can practice that in your room. While we're here, I'll help you come up with a couple spells to make this form a bit more convenient for you."

Looking up joyfully surprised, Zion gave a genuine smile and responded to his mentor with enthusiasm. "I'll do my best!"

There were two glaring drawbacks to Zion's "Strength Tuning" and the first one Casvallion insisted be addressed was that objects don't increase in size with him. His clothing seemed to be the only thankful exception. His staff wasn't unusable and if Zion just got used to having a wand it would do just fine, but not every weapon or magic tool will still be practical to use at that size. They set to work creating a strength magic spell that would increase the size and scale of an object, something much easier than doing so to a moving living being. Casvallion led Zion in the right direction for the basic magic theory and formula involved, but he left it to Zion to communicate with the rukh to seek out the truth of the laws binding this world for himself. Having a high affinity for strength magic it didn't take long for Zion to come up with a spell that showed some progress, but the size could only increase in one dimension. That wasn't really practical for his needs so he kept researching and trying out new formula combinations to get the desired effect.

To Zion the four hours spent on the spell seemed like a long time, but to Casvallion it was a speed that only the most talented magicians possessed. He took to researching magic like a fish to water and ultimately ended up with a spell that suited his needs perfectly. "Increase!" Zion flicked his staff and commanded a shroud of strength magic to coat the staff while in his Strength Tuned state. Using this spell he managed to scale the staff up to a size which felt more comfortable in Zion's enlarged hands.

---

The next spell was to deal with the gravity doubling effect in regards to his own weapons. It wouldn't do to make his staff so heavy he can't use it properly. After a break to eat and recover magoi, the mentor student pair once again teamed up to create a new spell that was specific to Zion's needs. At first the younger magician wanted to persue a spell that made his staff weightless, but Casvallion pointed out that such a simple spell would just undo the effect of his form. With the older magician's guidance Zion was able to refine his approach and improve upon his combination of formulas.

Gravity magic was a side of strength magic Zion had little  experience with but it was something new to explore and learn about. Even if he didn't have somewhat pressing need for a spell like this, he likely wouldn't lose an ounce of the scholarly zeal. By the end of the day another 10 hours later Zion completed his new spell. "Suspend!" Magoi fed strength magic which covered the staff in Zion's hand with another layer of black strength magic. The laws of gravity around the weapon were shifted but only subtly in the places directly in contact with Zion's body. Regardless of its weight, Zion would be able to wield his weapons up to a certain size as though they were weightless. The hardest part about the spell had been finding the right commands to isolate the strength magics effect. Searching for the right formulas had been like trying to tread a needle blind folded. Thanks to Casvallion Zion ended up diverting his attention to learning the basic flight spell first which had taken only two of the ten hours passed.

After leaning the most common gravity magic spell his understanding of the sub-type improved making it easier to hunt down the right insights needed to construct this new spell.

Enshrouded in the cover of night and Casvallion's illusion magic Zion was brought back to his room after a rather productive day. Initially Casvallion was full of concern regarding Zion and did not think he was ready to attend classes any time soon. But after seeing the doll magicians aptitude towards magic and magoi manipulation it was clear that he didn't need magic lessons to match his peers. As Zion disembarked, the masked man laid out the next days plan for him. "You did well today, but tomorrow you will stay here and focus on speeding up your tuning process. I'll come back to check on you in the morning with food for the day." Zion nodded and then bade his mentor good night before navigating the stacks of books to collapse onto the bed feeling exhausted.

The next morning started with Casvallion waking Zion shortly before dawn once more. Instead of being rushed off to the training ground, Casvallion simply offered Zion some encouragement before leaving a basket of food behind. The masked man wanted to help Zion but this wasn't a matter of researching magic. It was a problem unique to Zion that only he had experienced personally. Any guidance Casvallion could give regarding tuning would be best guesses at most. Instead of risking the chance of misleading Zion he simply let the youth work the problem out on his own. It was the best method the masked man could think of but he wasn't fond of how helpless he was to make a difference.

Left alone in the room, Zion had a short breakfast before clearing out some space in the middle of the room. It was difficult with so many books around but it didn't take too much time. The young magician opened the window and then returned to the cleared space he had made. He cast two spells in quick succession, both aimed out the window into the empty air. The spells would fizzle out long before they hit anything. Their only purpose was to tune Zion's body triggering his transformation. The moment he felt his rukh begin to resonate Zion immediately started focusing on flooding his body with magoi to calm the rukh and untune himself. The sensation was strange and made Zion feel as though his entire body was vibrating with power. The feeling was almost intoxicating during the moment of transformation which made it difficult for Zion to control his magoi in order to suppress it.

A day slowly passed and by evening when Casvallion had returned Zion had made minor progress. The black film of light still formed around Zion and caused his body to grow, but now half way through the transformation it would suddenly reverse shrinking Zion back down to normal size. This was still too slow to hide the tuning however. Casvallion assigned Zion to another day of practice and left. The youth wasn't surprised by this judgement and threw himself back into practice opting not to sleep. What made this practice most difficult had been that he simply didn't have enough magoi to repeat the process over and over again in quick succession. Zion needed to rest multiple times throughout the day to recover his strength. During this time he had either read some of the countless books in the room or had taken a nap.

Rather than sleep, Zion was able to repeat the process four more times. Each time he was getting a little better. The rukh resonating within Zion's body were wild and powerful but they always behaved the same way. Through trial and error Zion adjusted the speed and intensity of his magoi while steeling his mind against the high of tuning into the magic type. By Casvallion's arrival the next morning Zion had managed to prevent the expansion of his body entirely. The black film still began to cover his body but it faded before it could fully encase him. It wasn't ideal, but it was subtle enough that it could be explained away as an attempt at a spell beyond Zion's capacity as a magician backfiring.