Clyde looked at Amelia, almost sensing the unspoken question in her. "If you have a question, speak it. And as I said, you may not need them now, but you will later. Gestures and incantations help you to focus your magic. Perhaps they are not as needed when you have unlimited time, and are safe with no distractions, in a 'lab setting.'" He gestured about the room as he said lab.
"But you will not always use magic in a lab setting. And one of the tenets of magic, is power versus control. You gain one, at the expense of the other. You want a strong spell? It will be less easy to control. You want a spell done fast? It will be less easy to control. You want to be able to control every nuance of a spell, completely safely? You will need to either take a great deal of time, and do it slowly and carefully without any distraction, or make it much less powerful to what you can handle."
"This is when gestures and incantations will come to the front, as they will help you to focus. To ignore distractions somewhat and to focus on your djed work. Of course, learning to close off ones mind, through meditation, is also a good thing to learn, which you should. But when a fireball is racing at your head, or a man with a sword ready to stab you with a few feet of steel... Then tell me if those things will not be a saving grace, and possibly save your life. I train you for the worst case, not the lab setting, so that when that worst case comes, you might just survive."
Soon enough they were back into the thick of things, doing practical study, instead of lecturing on theory. Amelia prepared herself again, this time doing some odd motions that seemed forced. She caught even less water this time, than the time before.
"You cannot force it, that will only fail. The motion must work for you, work for your mind and body and will, just like how Glyphs work. Find what works for you, experiment, try new things, until one clicks."
"And remember, your res is a part of you, an extension of your will. Guide it, do not force it like a rock rolling up hill. Find the easiest solution to the problem, don't try anything fancy or because it looks good. Aesthetics are fine if you are a painter. But if you worry about them, about looking foolish with magic, you will only end up dead."
Clyde held out the palms of his hands, and quickly exuded out a trail of gaseous res from each. Unlike Amelia's exuding, his was fast, steady, and easily done. It billowed out until he had it concentrated in a rough ball shape, at which time he stopped. With a lazy twirl of his left hand by rotating his wrist it compressed into a smaller ball about the size of his fist. Perhaps a bit smaller than his own fist, once it was done swirling in upon itself and compressing.
He then swatted at the air with his middle and index finger held together, perhaps like he was tapping something unseen. As he did, the ball of res raced off in the same direction of his flick, right to the barrel of water. It attracted water as it dived in, and with a upward thrust of his palm the ball exited now encased in a paper thin layer of liquid, with more water were the ball of res was, mixing and intermingling. He now had a roughly fist sized ball of water, floating above the barrel.
"Alright, next I want you to try a ball shape of res, and to catch the water ball. Then toss it back at me."
Clyde would give Amelia the time she needed, and wait until she made some kind of motion or acknowledgement she was ready.
Then he would make a small twirling motion with his fingers, the water ball imitating. It would orbit around a point a few times, and then fly a foot at Amelia. HE would release the attraction at this point, and the ball of water would continue on at Amelia. With a 'come' gesture of his hand at himself, the ball of res now devoid of water would race back to hover in front of him. |