While Daw, Niphru decided to try w on his magic, as it did not strain his spirit like his fme did. Additionally, he figured if he could manage force magic, he might be able to use it in pce of the hands he cked. That said, he only khe more basis of magic presently.

  Since he had been with Dawn when she was reading the book on the basiagic, he khat all the forms he knew were applications of force magibsp; Clearly, he ought to be able to work backward from that.

  Fog carefully, he created a tiny ball of fire halfway across the room and began trying to see how it worked. While he didn’t succeed at first, he hardly expected that. He was slowly able to figure out what was going oime, however, something of a mix between feeling and seeing a whirling maelstrom of mana at the core of the fme.

  Trying to replicate it failed dozens of times, and trying to ge it colpsed the spell dozens of times as well. In the end, he gave up on fire, fog on water instead, using a small orb densed from the air.

  In this case, the edges of the water felt like they were pinched all around on both the inside and outside surfaces. As before, attempting to recreate or manipute it failed, resulting in the orb leaking, only to be caught again before it hit the carpet.

  Disced by the failure, he decided to try wind magic, si was supposed to be the closest to direct force magibsp; Unfortunately, his efforts here were even less successful, being uo sense anything about the magid thus uo try to alter it.

  Grumbling to himself, he decided to follow Dawn’s example and try to sleep instead.

  Dawn, moving as she got up, awoke Niphru the m. She then immediately apologized for waking him. During their breakfast, Niphru spoke up, “I was trying to figure out force magic st night, but I ’t even tell what wind magic is doing, and all I could do with the others is make them not work. Could you help me? I was thinking I could use it in pce of hands, since I don’t have any.”

  With a thoughtful expression, Dawn replied, “That does sound like a good idea. It also keeps me from having to go out. I’m sure everyohinks I’m dumb f to grab an illusion…”

  “Of course not. You just are not used to me hiding and using an illusion, since I never did before. I’m sure others have done embarrassing things before, too, and won’t judge,” Niphru expiail twitg in agitation at her remark about herself.

  “Oh. I guess that is right; I hadn’t thought of it that way. Thank you, Niphru,” Dawn said with a slight smile f. She then tinued, “That makes me feel quite a bit better, though I still don’t want to go out today.”

  Niphru simply nodded in response, finishing up the pte of ba Dawn had made for him.

  A few moments ter, Dawn finished her meal auro the bedroom, ying doropping her head up with her hands. Since he figured she was still feeling down, Niphru y down against her side, rubbing his head against her. With a ugh, she rolled to her side and stopped him, then begaing him as she smiled.

  Dawn hummed under her breath for a moment before she remarked, “If you want to learn force magic, I think the important thing is to not think of it as doing something, but instead just being something? I held a string in the air by making a ptform for it to sit on, not by holding it up, I think. Pushing air was more like having a ushing the air rather than directly shoving the air.”

  Taking on a thoughtful expression, Dawn sidered for a time before tinuing, “I think it might actually be closer to water magic than air magibsp; With water, you have two forces pressing together, but with air, you just have one loose one. With the direct force magic, it is like I am grabbing something, not just pushing.”

  Even with these pointers, however, Niphru found himself uo maher force magic, or sensing what he was doing with air magibsp; Eventually, Dawn tried having him look closely through their bond as she performed some of the basic force magic she had figured out, but even that did not help much.

  Fortunately, Dareciated bei busy for the day without having much time to think about yesterday, thanking Niphru for distrag her ohey finally stopped for dinner.

  Waking up the m, the two had a small breakfast before heading back up to the library floor, finding the church’s mages scattered around, talking to different groups this time. No one seemed to care about her running off the other day, making her smile, whi turn made Niphru happy.

  Despite this, and the apparent friendliness of the mages, Niphru kept using an illusion to hide his true position just in case. After a moment of discussion, Dawn decided to head upstairs and see if she could find Thomas and Viera about their group while he stayed behind to speak with the academic group.

  Luckily, they were quite easy to talk with, and when he mentioned he had been having issues trying to sense what air magic was doing, and attempting force magic, he found them more than willing to help him learn. They quickly grabbed a handful of books about both wind and force magid began expining basic magical theory to ensure he was going about things properly.

  While he had already covered this while following along with Dawn, he was still thankful they sidered it, and he figured that a reminder couldn’t hurt. The book was on wind magid he thought he was getting an idea of how to look for what it was doing, with its more subtle form. The sed book on wind magic, however, was where he made a breakthrough. Instead to see air as something to shove or pull, it mentiorying to view it more as something you simply give dire to, as it always wao be in motion already.

  Following this approach, he was finally able to tell where the tiny touches of magic occurred when he worked with the wind. After thanking the kind individuals who helped him, he ran upstairs in search of Dawn, finding her quite easily. While she was sitting alone, she greeted him with, “Hello, Niphru; I met with Viera, and she answered some questions I had. I’m willing to join their group if you are. Apparently, they even got permission for us to move to a new dwelling higher up, ohat would let you have a way in or out. I’m really excited even if I’m also nervous. What do you think?”

  “That sounds great; I ’t think of any problems with it. And I think I figured out what I was looking for with air magic, so hopefully it won’t be too long until I practice force magic with you. I was going to practice I found you a you know. Do you mind if I do that, or do you want to go bae?” Niphru replied as he dropped his illusion and moved to sit beside her.

  Smiling, Dawn reached down to scratch behind his ears while she spoke, “I don’t mind at all. I’ve been practig with the ambient mana for a while now; it is actually pretty fun!”

  Letting his joy at her happiness flow across the bond, he leaned into her scratg as he began to gently influehe air nearby, deep in focus.