Studying magic

“Try again.”

“Uggh.. It’s not going to work, Joshua!” I say to him.

“Come on, don’t be a pussy. Try harder.”

I get frustrated by his words. “Shut up! I ám trying.. I just can’t do it!”

I put my hands down and take a sip of water from my water bottle. “We’ve been trying for almost three hours now. How am I supposed to learn all this in only three days?” I’m ready to give up hope. This is not going to happen. I sigh.

“Crissie. Don’t do this. I know you’re able to. I’m not sure why, but you have more powers in your body than you realize. Something or somebody gave you those powers, because you fit them. You’re strong!” Joshua walks closer to Crissie and lift her chin with his finger. “Look at me.” he says. “You’re strong. I love you.”

“Off course I’m strong, nobody said I wasn’t. I’m just … just a girl, a human, not a ‘mage’.” I say irritated, looking away from his stare.

Joshua chuckles. “That’s my girl. Come on, keep that spirit and do it again.”

We’re standing outside, in the training area. Directly after the warriors were done training this morning, we entered the area to train ourselves. Well, train mé. I try to focus and take one look at the book again. Think about a place. Focus. Make hand movements with my hands and lower arms. Create portal. It should be simple. The book said it’s one of the easiest things to do, as a master of magic. The hardest part is to create portals on different continents of the world. But change locations more than 20 yards, but still in the same 'area', should be fine as a beginner.

Alright. Where do I wanna go? I think about a location and nod to myself. Hmmmm.. That should be OK. I try to imagine the location, remember the smell and almost feel the air. Then I open my eyes and make the small circles with my hands. I try to hold my lower arms and only move my wrist and hands. The moment I’m satisfied with the rotations of my hands, I see my hands starts to glow. “It’s working!” I yell out loud. I look at the glow, and try to focus more but the glow fades away.

“Noooo!! It went so good, what happened?” I ask, frustrated, at Joshua. He looks at me and says: “I think you try too hard this time, Chrissie. Yes, you need to focus but also try to relax at the same time. Will you please try again for me, pumpkin? Calm yourself and trust your abilities.”

Again, I make the movements. I see my hands starting to glow and try to relax. An opening starts to form at the height of my stretched armes. Adrenaline is pumping through my veins. I just continue, and after 10 seconds the portal seems to be complete. I softly lower my arms and the portal still happens to be here. “I did it!” I yell enthusiastic.

Crissie runs towards Joshua, and jumps into his arms. She pushes her lips on his, and gives him a long and intense kiss. “Thanks for your support, handsome.”

“Did you just call me handsome? Wow.. I’m flattered..” Joshua says with a naughty smile on his face.

“Shall we try the portal?” I ask him.

I turn around to walk back to the portal I just created, but it’s gone! “Where - where did it go?” I ask confused. Joshua has taken the book and started reading. “Oh, it says you’ve only 1 minute to use the portal, otherwise it disappears. Come, do it again. Can you make us a portal to the packhouse? To Luna Avery’s office, so we can surprise her!” Joshua says to me. I see the twinkles in his eyes, oh God. Sometimes he’s such a toddler..

“Alright. I’ll try.”

After a few tries, I manage to create a portal to Luna Avery’s office. It’s funny, I can see her office shining through the portal. I take Joshua’s hand and say: “Come, big boy. Let’s shock our Luna.” And I pulls him with me when I step into the portal.

---

“Uhm, hi Luna.” Crissie says to the shocked face of Luna Avery. “We wanted to say hello..”

Avery doesn’t say a word and is still staring at Crissie’s appearance.

“I’ve managed to create portals. I thought it would be a nice idea to surprise you with it. Well, actually it was his idea.” Crissie turns around to point at Joshua, but the room is empty. “What the …. I brought Joshua with me. Where is he?”

Avery still kept silence. Her face is still in shock, as she sees a ghost.

“Well, I guess I’m gonna leave. Thanks for the chat.” Crissie says to her Luna, and starts to create a portal back to the training area. After the portal shows, she steps into it and disappears. The portal closes behind her.

---

“Well, that escalated quickly..” I say to Joshua. “Why didn’t you come with me?”

“I’ve tried to. But the portal closes immediately after you. My hand still hurts as hell, because it got stuck for a second between the portal and this area.”

“But how am I supposed to help get you close to Eve, when I’m only able to create a portal for myself?”

Joshua frowns and responds: “There has to be an explanation. We need to search. Come, read the book again.”

I immediately start reading and after 20 minutes I’ve found it. “Here! It says I can make two types of portals! One is a teleport, it only makes ME change locations. And I can make portals, everyone I want to is able to use it.” I look at Joshua and say: “So, I just made teleportations, and not a portal? It looks the same though, look…” I point to the pictures in the book.

Joshua nods. “Indeed, they look the same. But…! It’s all in the hand movements, you see?”

I look closely to the pictures again, and it’s true: the teleportations have slightly different rotations than a portal. “Alright, now I know how to teleport myself. Let’s practice real portals then…”

This is going to be a long day...