Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
She wove her hands together, bringing a ball of crux to life. Then, she threw it forward, almost the same as how Bastian had thrown down the magical artifacts. She focused intently, and the ball reshaped into an amorphous black blob.
“Now, this is a basic illusion. I created illusionary matter out of spirit magic. I can shape it how I see fit.” She waved her hand again, and the illusions turned into a group of enormous spiders.
They were so realistic that Kerrigan jumped and pulled herself backward. “Holy gods!”
The spiders disappeared, and in their place was an exact replica of Kerrigan.
Kerrigan’s jaw dropped. The red hair was the same. The clothes were the same. Even the expression on her face looked identical.
“I can control this version of you. I can have her go and do my bidding.” Cleora concentrated, a bead of sweat forming on her brow.
Illusion Kerrigan began to dance a jig that Kerrigan herself had never danced before in her life.
Cleora pushed her hand, and the other Kerrigan dissolved. She took a deep breath and then another.
“It is challenging. Especially with the night that I’ve had. You try it.”
Kerrigan focused, trying to draw in her crux to form the illusionary ball, like Cleora had suggested. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t seem to shape her magic to fit what she wanted.
She gasped and released her work. “That feels impossible.”
“It is difficult. But try again.”
Kerrigan grunted and tried over and over again. She didn’t even get a single spark of crux to appear in her hand. She finally flopped back in irritation.
“This shouldn’t be so hard.”
“It could be that you aren’t able to create illusions if you haven’t done them yet. The others came so naturally to you.” Cleora grinned. “Or you just need more practice.” Cleora shot her a look that brooked no response.
Kerrigan tried again. She tried for what felt like ages, but she didn’t even make a single spark of her crux turn into something else. It was embarrassing after how quickly she had gotten everything else.
“Can we do energy instead?” she grunted, letting the crux dissolve.
“The fifth tenet is the most dangerous to both yourself and others. If used untrained, you could kill everyone within a radius of where you are. You need much more control and not just power before we move on to energy. We’re going to keep working on illusions until you feel confident.”
Kerrigan gritted her teeth. She wanted to argue. Energy blasts had saved her life more than once in the past. Learning to control them would certainly help her more than focusing on illusions that she couldn’t master.
Though it would be nice to be in more than one place at once. Cleora was droning on about all the various uses of illusions. It seemed there was an entire list of ways they could be used. Since this was Cleora’s specialty, she wasn’t going to just let Kerrigan skip it.
“If you can’t make the crux work by our next meeting, we’ll focus on the theoretical basis. You might need to know more about the why and how and where of it all,” Cleora said with a nod. “You’ve done so well in the reality of it that we haven’t spent much time on how this is all happening to you. We can do that next time and focus on energy once you have a better understanding.”
That sounded boring. The best part of her spirit training was that it was all immediately useful. Theoretical sounded like more book work. Just what she needed.
“You can do it,” Cleora told her, patting her hand. “I must return. It has been a long night for me, and I need to get some rest to recover.”
“Cleora,” Kerrigan said. “You will be okay, right?”
“Of course. This isn’t my first time working for the emperor, and it won’t be my last. It’s just draining. Have no fear. Focus on what you can control.”
“Next full moon then,” Kerrigan said with a smile.
Cleora bowed to Tieran. “Help her with the illusions. You seem to be a calming presence.”
I try my best, Tieran said, bowing to her as well.
Then, Cleora disappeared, and Kerrigan dragged them back out of the spirit plane. She tried once again to draw in the crux for illusions and was so irritated that it hadn’t worked that she kicked a huge rock and stubbed her toe.
“Shit. Gods. Ouch!” she groaned. “Why is this so hard?”
Give it time. Not everything came to easily you with dragon training, but we mastered it. I believe we will master this as well.
Kerrigan sighed. “Yeah. I should probably rest. I’m so drained. And there’s so much practice still to do. I just … I can’t shake the feeling that I need all of this now and not later.” She climbed onto Tieran’s back and sighed. “I wish Fordham were here.”