Persuading a Prodigy

Ms. Cromwell spent time her evening practicing, once more, from her assorted, familiar conjurations beyond and including Cryo. The list of spells is like a series of enchanted stretches, each verifying the integrity of her knowledge, focus, and reflex in the arcane schools. Setting several flames adrift around her, freezing a lengthy band of mist, clumping together clay from her desk and tossing them back as stone, growing a leaf from a potted plant into a thorny tangle. And, as she completed this routine, outside her window, there was a fire outside somewhere on the forested outskirts of the town. And she could hear the dissent of those who lived there, unprotected from even hooligans by anything less than some archaic government social programs.

She sits opposite of Mr. and Mrs. Whitmore, slicing her portion of the slab of pork from the table center and resting it to a plate. "Thank you," the instructor says. "Have you heard the unfortunate news of the death this morning of the younger fabric worker?"

Lucina hasn't slept too awfully well, and is quite thankful that there was nothing planned for early this morning. She chews on a bit of smeared toast; while her gaze rests in the direction of Ms. Cromwell, it's clear she's an entirely unknowing person when it comes to societal and political issues. It's always been trying to deal with magic, with and about her. She yawns slightly, trying to hide her face as best she can.

"I did hear that something of the sorts happened, past that I'm still waiting on more official reports. People say and accuse so much in these incidents." Mr. Whitmore helps himself to some beans. "Unfortunate indeed."

She says, "The reports seem a bit leisurely in coming out to the public. I'd think a tragedy of a beloved business' son would be more pressing. Although, I'm sure there's a lot of moving parts involved." She smirks, somehow, and eats. Her plate is also complemented with vegetables and a glass of sparkling water. "I've been thinking about what I'd enact in a position like Great Archmage, and who I'd elect for the position this biannual that shares my thoughts."

"You'd have my vote, Ms. Cromwell. You seem to have the aspirations and commitment to do great things. I hope the meal is to your liking." Mrs. Whitmore passes some potatoes to Lucina. A request, not an offer. Lucina takes a minor amount, just enough to not be judged.

"Yeah, that's bureaucracy for you. It's all wrapped up and complicated, you'd think they'd streamline things by now but no. It's good at least they try to keep things disclosed until details are more certain... We do have personal experience with the public getting caught up in things that are entirely not true." Mr. Whitmore chews some meat, and gets a look from his wife about not finishing his bites before speaking.

She tilts her chin back for the sparkling water. Then she says, "I am rather inspired and love our city. Perhaps, with your vote and advocacy as a fragrant start, I will run for the office." She smiles, and she takes it to Lucina. "Still, it's easy to just excuse something just because it's complicated to get right. On that subject, Lucina and I will not be shying from the farther teachings of Cryo someday soon. Has a proper area of the manor been cleared for her and I to study and train?"

"In the west wing, we have a study and a meeting room set aside. The study is... Mostly cleared, so there's very few expensive things to be wary of there. The connected meeting room is properly furnished with seating and tables, books and other supplies. We are, as stated, eager to supply anything more as needed. I would suggest keeping the magic to the study, if possible. Miriam will show you the way once you're ready." The lady that had let Ms. Cromwell in on both occasions bows slightly in acknowledgement of being mentioned by Mrs. Whitmore.

"Yes, mom, I'll try not to destroy seven copies of textbooks at once again. Now please, can we get over that incident?" Lucina rolls her eyes, and grumbles into another mouthful of toast.

"Excellent. We'll definitely require new materials as the studies continue, which materials left unknown for the time being... the basic equipment is certainly all in place. And I am almost ready, speaking on that." Instructor Cromwell picks at her plate, appropriately, and she nods at Miriam. Then she quietly laughs at Lucina's annoyance, the way her eyes roll. The instructor completes her meal and leaves the lunch table with the company of Lucina to the west wing.

Upon the notion of leaving, Lucy shovels down the last third of her toast and stands up as well. She could run ahead as she's well familiar with the rooms, but Miriam at least gets the respect of getting to lead the two there. The door opens, to a startlingly large and more notably, tall room. It's certainly more than what one would assume by the word 'study'. "Call for me if there's anything more you need, Ms. Cromwell." She takes a bow and leaves, and Lucina takes spot in the middle of the room, stretching out quite impressively. Going from bed to lunch table hasn't given her much time to displace her limbs.

"Thank you, Miriam, for your assistance." Azriel walks in a large revolution around Lucina, admiring the architecture of the study. It's the most promising site of training yet for a pupil. She then closes the gap, ending the circling like a shark, and stands beside Lucina. She says, "Well, we've finally gotten through the paperwork and the padding. Again, I'll be your Instructor Cromwell for the foreseeable future. And we should begin with some focused demonstrations of your existing Cryo abilities." She produces a few floating beads of water and strings them in front of Lucina, before dropping them to the white tile. "Almost all Cryo sorcery relies on tailoring water from a liquid source or the very air, and this air is hardly dry. Could you, today and now, pool water for me?"

Lucina sits down on the floor, and observes the water droplets that have splashed onto the tiles. "Incanter's Tips and Tricks #17, don't dismiss an already existing source of water if present." She waves her hands over the splatters and they slowly coalesce into - Not an orb of water, as it slowly but certainly freezes over and turns into a lump of ice, snow settling in the air around it. It's clear that, unlike most scholars and apprentices, the magic is deeply innate and quite potent - she can't measure it down to only the control of water for now. "Uh... Close enough?"

The Instructor kneels down and hovers her hand over the new ice but not in direct contact with it. And she recedes her hand to feel the small bits of snow melt into her skin. She says, "So you've tailored water successfully, even suspending it from the floor, but you've also inadvertently frozen it. While it will often be the goal to freeze the water, we'll definitely want to investigate having a fine-tuned control of specifically the liquid stage. Since you'd be able to achieve things like, for example, this." She coalesces water again from the air, this time from a couple feet away to not disturb the ball of ice. She gathers enough of it to twirl into a column in front of them, and then she freezes it and permits gravity its part. The spire of crystalized water stands upright to the height of the sat Lucina's shoulders.

"Hmm... You do have a point. This happens with all instructors, really. They're so used to helping people do more magic that actually dealing with prodigies is outside of their skillset. A young girl isn't meant to be able to just, accidentally freeze things!" She rolls her orb away, and with a crackle it bursts into small pieces so that it may melt and return its humidity to the air sooner. And she focuses again, trying to focus on the mannerisms that Azriel had been using. She makes a small glob of water, and takes a deep breath as she tries to clear her mind and impulses of the desire to beset it with a deep cold on instinct. It does last for some time, but as soon as she tries reshaping it the focus is lost and it freezes into the shape of a lumpy icicle. "It's like the natural state of water in my control is ice. I intend to freeze it after shaping it, after all, so the magic just skips ahead to that part." Lucy grumbles gently.

Instructor Cromwell pupils follow the rolling ball of ice, and she smirks. She returns her attention to the botched attempt at shaping a "water tower," and she says, "That is a difference between them and I. In this situation, I have no concern of what you're meant or not meant to know up to and including this point. Instead, I'm just focusing on the gaps in moving forward. And cut yourself some slack, you're more of a young woman." A small circle of flames appears at the base of both Lucina's icicle and the instructor's icicle, each melting them with unnatural pace. The instructor moves to the side and demonstrates a formation of water into a simple torus just off the ground. Her hands operate the spell with great luxury. "There's a few ways you could think of water. Its natural state could be ice and you could just 'convince the magic' that other states of water have a place in the natural world as well. Alternately, you could try to mentally abandon the idea of a natural state. Some great sorcerers, after all, subscribe to the idea that modern incantations are purely unnatural."

Lucina attends to the suggestions with great interest, and seems to fall quiet, thoughtful. It's true, this is not nearly the kind of pointers she's usually told. And it makes sense, to some extent. She was always so focused in the idea of turning water into ice, or not turning water into ice...

She focuses again, manifesting a glob of water. As she stretches and shapes it cautiously, it makes the vaguest hints of crystallizing but she focuses on simply turning the ice back into water - It works at first, but the collective temperature of the mass drains towards freezing inevitably. As she tries to shape it into a loop, it ices over; she can't convert it to water again with her ice magic, but. What if she-

There's a bright flash inside the water as Lucina's instincts try to apply her capacity of Lumes to reheat the water, which only serves to blind her temporarily as she was staring deeply into the water at the moment. The ring shatters on the floor as her focus is broken, and she rubs her eyes unhappily followed by soft, complainy noises.

"Yes. You're sustaining the state of water much longer now." Azriel saunters around the ring, examining Lucina's expression and hand motions. Then she stumbles backwards at the burst of light between and below them, and a healthy splash of the water lands on her shoes. The instructor flinches and blinks.

"Hold on, Lucina, hold on. Please. Was the incorporation of Lumes intentional? You're incredibly potent in that school—we both recognize that from all the earlier discussion and rumors; however, if it was intentional, why would you try to incorporate it for this practice of molding water..?" Cromwell stands beside Lucina. She hides her shock in seeing the young woman's gift in the Lumes arts not only unpracticed but in trail of an entirely unrelated conjuration. She puts her fingers over her own lips. Her eyes rest a bit lighter, though. "It's a genuine question, not a criticism."

It takes another minute for Lucina to shake off the worst of her self-applied shock, and finally shakes herself through once to regain at least some composure. "Well, you see... I decided to focus on turning the forming ice back into water by using the warmth of the water around it. But, of course, eventually I ran out of warmth and it all froze at once! So the idea of heating it came to mind but I have no experience in Pyro because, well, obviously no one wants to teach me while my abilities are this volatile... And then I briefly related warmth and light and decided in the moment to use light to warm it up. Which was a stupid idea, probably. Pure Lumes isn't even warm at all, I know that from experience."

She rubs her eyes some more, and stands up as the water is starting to seep into some of her clothes. She seems a bit shaky, still. "I simply tried to think differently and I guess I achieved that, somehow. Turning ice back into water by itself is not sustainable, I see, but. That felt different. I guess there's really something to your ideas... I'll have to think about it. Thank you. Was this room always this dark?" She blinks a few more times.

"You're quite skilled at explaining your thought process. That'll be quite useful... I don't think the idea was stupid. I would say the idea in using light to warm the object of water was a decision made in pressure, and there wasn't any pressure to act in this lesson. In other words, you're allowed to let the water turn into ice if it won't hold. We just want to keep extending the time until we suspect you can preserve water in an indefinite fluid state. Nobody would expect you to master this all at once." She evaporates a large portion of the water into the air with some flicking gestures. She smiles. "I didn't know Lumes had a temperature. No matter, though. I'm glad you achieved something different, and I definitely encourage you, Lucina, to continue thinking on it long after our lesson. For now, though, let's try to keep Lumes out of our lessons in Cryo. Lone Cryo should be more approachable to refine for us considering, for instance, I have minimal experience in Lumes. And no, the room isn't any darker at all."

She stays beside Lucina, extends her hand, and says, "Should you need something before we continue practicing?"

The dazed student reaches to take the offered hand, but she blinks more and takes visibly more effort to align the hands than ideal. "Are you... Are you sure it isn't darker? I should probably sit down." She seems almost a little nervous to move, and as her gaze passes over Ms. Cromwell, there's a faint, magical glint visible across her eyes.

"You're right... I need to focus on this one thing. I'm so used to wandering my thoughts when people try to teach me."

She nods, and she bites her lip at her young student of arcana.

"That is troubling. We should replenish with a break, then. Ten minutes should be sufficient. Though, please let me know if the darkness increases or you feel any physically worse."

She wanders to the nearest wall of the room, and she performs to what Lucina what may be inexplicable—she revitalizes a withering stem and flower from a potted iris, and its hues deepen.

"The drifting of the mind is a common tendency," Her voice echoes faintly in the study. "In a sense, all channeled arcana is unfocused since the human mind will always be unfocused too, even if it is subconscious. The most important thing to remember is to avoid thinking of different schools of arcana, however, than the one you're utilizing."

Lucina settles in a nearby chair, and closes her eyes temporarily. She takes two deep breaths, and sighs. "I've heard many times, that channeling the latent magical force requires focus, to scrape together enough to use for a specific purpose. I, meanwhile, have the opposite issue. I feel it everywhere, there's so much. Choosing just the right amount is hard."

Even just pondering on the concept seems to make faint traces of snow manifest around her. "I am somewhat scared of it, on occasion. If I ever... Ah, no. Never mind that. I want to learn."

"I assure you, Lucina, that won't be something to fear. Being easily capable of tapping into the ambient magical force of the world is a remarkable ability. It poses its own hurdles, I agree, but these hurdles will be simpler to overcome compared to grasping at the air for arcana to begin with. It took me years to familiarize myself with it."

Satisfied, the instructor approaches Lucina again, and she smiles. "Please begin the exercise again when you're ready."