Chapter 9

Now that I had a real connection the the Earth Realm and an Earth Battery, it was time to start thinking about some spells I asked myself some questions.

What was a quality of the earth? Well, it was dark. Darkness hides things Could I make a cloak that turns me invisible?

Earth was hard. Could I form a protective shield out of it?

Earth was heavy. Could I create a force that would crush people into the ground?

Earth was dense. Could I create small dense balls of earth Earth Energy to shoot at something?

Yes. I thought to myself. These were all great ideas. I could do this. If magic was all about will and intention, I would do this. But all of this theorizing was just intellectual masturbation at the moment. Rochelle was in no position to have me drawing what little earth energy she had. I would follow the plan that Medes had suggested to me, I wouldn’t draw any elemental energy from any of my batteries until their mana pools were full and they were cycling their energy through their bodies.

I would get together with Rochelle once or twice a week, We would either meditate together or just relax and get to know each other. I wanted to be completely open and honest with her, after all, she was the keeper of my earth element. I told her all about my trysts when I went out. I told her about Michelle and Sarah, who I was still seeing. She asked me if I loved them and I said that although I did care for them and enjoyed their company, I didn’t love them. She seemed to accept that.

During one of these visits she said, “Alex. I think I’ve mastered meditation and breathing. What’s next on the agenda?”

“Now you have to find and connect with your soul. You have to be very careful, though. Your soul is very delicate at the moment. Your soul is like a newborn baby and needs to be treated as such. You need to gently wrap your awareness around it and nurture it. Eventually your soul will communicate back to you. When that happens I’ll tell you the next step.”

That night I was feeling bored and restless, but didn’t want to go out. I finally realized that I was feeling that way because I was burned out with Divination. I was time to study something else. I felt drawn to Conjuration, the magic of creating things out of nothing, or out of Spirit Energy, was fascinating to me.

Medes told me that I had to create an image in my mind. It needed to be as clear, sharp and focused as looking at the coffee cup in my hand. This was where my Divination skills would come in handy. I would need to use them to create an essence for my image, fill that created essence with mana and conjure, or will, the image into existence. I didn’t even think of asking Medes how to create an image in my mind, I already knew what the answer would be.

So, how to start. I thought about it for some time and then I had a brainstorm. I went into the backyard and found a small pebble. I took it inside and sat on the sofa. I wanted to know it down to it’s most basic level. I sat on the sofa staring at it, memorizing every nook, cranny and crevice on it’s surface and divining it’s essence. When I was satisfied, I tried to copy the pebble’s essence.

I woke up sometime later with the biggest headache I had ever had. It was so bad that even total darkness was too much light for my eyes to bear. I was glad that I have to go to work for a few hours. I needed the rest. I started to think that I must be a masochist. Why else woud I keep going back to my little pebble the next night, and the night after. The headaches lessened over time and after a couple of weeks I was able to create an essence.

That doesn’t mean that it was a usable essence. It was a small, twisted, ugly essence. I kept on trying and eventually I was able to create the copy of the pebble’s essence. Putting the copied essence into the image I had built was another challenge. After

a number of weeks I was able to conjure a small pebble.