As Cera walked into the warehouse, she saw a table set up with a large bowl of water simply resting there. She had returned to her normal life—the one filled with spreadsheets, emails, and endless phone calls. It was hard to stay focused at work; the very concept of magic still barely seemed real. But now, the day was over, and she had arrived at the same warehouse, staring at the bowl of water.

  “Welcome back,” Mero said from behind her. She turned to see his soft half-grin, a genuine expression of warmth. His eyes flicked to the table and the bowl as he walked behind it. “I see you’ve already noticed what we’ll be doing today.”

  “A bowl of water?” Cera asked, confused. She also stood behind the table, gazing at the water, then back at Mero. He radiated a golden hue from his hand, and with a flick of his wrist, the water rippled, spilling slightly over the bowl’s edge.

  “When we are young, this is one of the exercises we do to learn how to use our aura to create a light wind and make the water ripple,” Mero answered as he flicked his wrist lightly again, creating another splash. “It’s an exercise in learning how to control your aura and use it to generate force.”

  “How do I even begin?” Cera asked as she leaned over the bowl, seeing a distorted reflection of herself. Mero walked around the table and looked into the bowl alongside her. He gently grabbed her hand and guided it above the bowl.

  “You can see your aura, but now you need to make it an extension of yourself,” Mero answered. “Any person, whether a capable magician or a well-versed sorcerer, knows that the aura itself is merely the conduit for their abilities.”

  “But how do I make it an extension of myself?”

  “You visualize it. First, imagine your aura forming something, maybe a small paddle that you’ll use to move the water,” Mero continued, holding Cera’s hand steady as she tried to visualize what he had told her. She could see her aura seeping through her skin, twisting and turning into short threads of orange. “Now, try to make it look like a paddle, or anything that can move the water below.”

  Cera watched the threads as they began to form an awkward shape, then unwound themselves, as if the strands of aura were fraying. “Focus is key here, Cera,” Mero affirmed.

  “It keeps coming undone,” Cera replied, keeping her eyes on her aura and trying to concentrate. Mero placed his hand steadily on hers, almost guiding it as he watched the threads of her aura.

  “Steady your hand, focus your aura,” he softly reassured her as Cera watched her aura begin to form what looked like a small stick. “Good, keep it like that and try to move the water.”

  Cera watched as the stick-like figure made of her aura hovered over the water. She looked at Mero one last time and asked, “Now, how do I do it?”

  “Try moving your hand gently to encourage it to move with you,” Mero responded as Cera began to maneuver her aura. It started to unwind again. “Continue to visualize it and steady it.”

  Cera continued to try to follow Mero’s advice, but as soon as the water slightly rippled, her aura would begin to fray and break, as if a twig were snapping from being bent by stone. “What happened?” she asked, frustrated.

  “It’s almost like you have more aura than you can control,” Mero stated as he lifted his hand. “Cera, your aura, for someone who has never seen magic, is simply extraordinary.”

  “How so? Didn’t you say this lesson is for children?”

  Mero nodded and said, “But their auras weren’t as strong as yours. When we first started, our auras weren’t even a quarter of what yours currently is.”

  “I’ve seen Sully’s aura; it dwarfed both that woman’s and mine.”

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  “Sully has been practicing magic since he was three and is a very gifted magician. Comparing yourself to him, or even Amond, shouldn't be how you, or frankly, most magic users, measure yourselves.”

  “Are they really that–”

  “Powerful? Yes,” Mero interrupted, giving an encouraging smile, sensing Cera’s self-doubt. “You know how to ride a bike?”

  “Of course.”

  “Well, were you able to ride comfortably on your first day?”

  Cera shook her head and admitted, “No, I wasn’t.”

  “Do you think your first time would have been even more challenging if the bike had been much larger than you?”

  “I could see that,” Cera replied. She looked over at Mero, who looked back at the water and, with another flick of his wrist, made water splash from the bowl. “You make it look easy.”

  “Your aura being like that means you have to grow into it.”

  “And how would I even begin to do that?” Cera asked as she stared into the bowl of rippling water. She began to visualize again and saw the orange threads beginning to take form.

  “By always getting back up and trying again, Cera,” Mero said.

  He placed his hand back on Cera’s and held it steady as he watched her aura form a smaller object than before, this time making the end of the water almost narrower. Cera’s skin started to feel warm; she could feel sweat beading on her forehead as she focused harder, her aura continuing to sharpen as it slowly descended into the water.

  “Now try to push it,” Mero instructed as Cera felt like her body was pushing a heavy object; her legs began to tremble. She mimicked what Mero had done earlier with a flick of her wrist, but suddenly, as if a burst of energy had fallen like a meteor hitting the ground, the bowl began to crack. Mero watched, completely confused, as the water began to seep from the crack before the dish crumbled onto the table.

  “What just happened?”

  “Very interesting,” Mero said as he studied the table and the now-destroyed bowl. Cera, watching him, may not have known Mero very long, but she could tell from the puzzled look on his face that he saw something he couldn’t quite believe.

  “How did I do that?” Cera asked, also confused by what had transpired. She heard a door open and footsteps approaching, as both she and Mero saw Sully walking by. He stopped to look at the bowl.

  “Did she get frustrated and break it?” Sully asked.

  “Why would I do that?”

  “Because I did that once when trying to do it,” Sully answered as he continued walking over to the two. “I remember just getting mad I couldn’t do it, then I took the bowl and smashed it.”

  “She didn’t smash it, Sully,” Mero said. “Her aura did it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She started to splash the water, but then her aura surged and ended up doing this,” Mero responded as he waved his hand over the table. Sully leaned over and studied the fragments of the bowl, his eyebrow curling slightly.

  “Well, that’s different,” Sully stated, as he stood up, looking toward Cera, whose aura seemed to be radiating brightly, more than before. “It seems both our mysteries here are getting more intriguing.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means your aura is getting more powerful,” Sully responded. “You blew a simple exercise away, literally. One that young magic users struggle with when first starting.”

  “Her first time trying to exercise her aura broke down when trying,” Mero chimed in as he grabbed a piece of the bowl and gave it a long gaze. “The second time, this is what happened.”

  “Meaning, whatever is going on with her, she can’t control it.”

  “Then how should we proceed?” Mero asked Sully, who put his hand on his chin, stroking his facial hair in contemplation. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it from someone with no experience before.”

  “Are you saying the great teacher Mero is intimidated by her power?” Sully chuckled, much to the annoyance of both Mero and Cera. “Just get a bigger bowl, get her to do the exercise until she can get some semblance of control.”

  “You make it sound so simple,” Mero commented with a slight frown etched across his face. “Her power is unpredictable, Sully. It needs to be handled delicately, for her safety first.”

  “Of course her power is unpredictable; she didn’t even know she had it until yesterday,” Sully responded, as he looked over at Cera, whose orange-colored aura was still surrounding her. “But until we fully understand what is going on with her, all we can do is try to show her how to properly control and use it.”

  “With children’s exercises?” Cera asked, annoyed by the fact that both men were discussing her without any input from her. “I am standing right here, you know?”

  Both men looked over at Cera, neither one having an answer on how to proceed with the circumstances they were witnessing. Mero sighed and said, “Perhaps we should work on some spell work that we practiced when we were teenagers?”