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"Ifrit, can I have a ginger ale, please?"
"~You can, but you said to remind you we were warned against teleportation spells. There's one about a mile east~"
"Which way's east?"
"~To your left. Wait, you're seriously going to walk a miles to get a ginger ale?~"
"Sure. Why not? You can't give me any, right?"
"~Not without a teleportation spell. You know I can't create.~"
"So what can you still do? The Zap spells, right?"
"~Do you have to call them that. But yes. Offensive spells, anything destructive except ... this would be a lot easier explain if you knew a damned thing about magic.~"
"...You're right! I should learn more about magic! Maybe I can get lessons!"
And scampering Alex goes.

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Soren was wandering about the ship with no real purpose; he'd already found a (disturbingly squishy) room in the Crew Quarters in which to store the bulk of his things. Mostly, he was exploring -- it was a vast vessel, one that it would no doubt behoove him to learn the layout of. But he was also thinking.

In fact, he almost missed spotting Alex, absorbed as he was in the information he'd downloaded from the Media Library. "Have a care; not all of the terrain on this ship is sturdy ground."

"Soren! Hi!" Alex proclaimed cheerfully. "I need to ask you something 'cause you're a mage!"

He blinked. "Oh? And what might that be? If it's directions on how to get to the Magical Department, I imagine Ifrit could take you there."

"Yeah, he did. And they said teleportation spells are dangerous on the ship, so now Ifrit's not supposed to take me places, or get me things, and, um, I don't know what else he can't do anymore because I don't know a lot about magic. So that's the thing. I need to know more about magic."

He frowned slightly. "Teleportation spells are 'dangerous'?" Well, so much for using that Rewarp staff he'd found rattling around. Well, maybe it would still come in handy sometime.

Hmm. He'd been assuming that Ifrit would keep Alex out of trouble. "How many of Ifrit's abilities are offensive in nature, rather than relying on teleportation?"

"Well, there's the Zap spell."
"~His term, not mine. Force blasts. He won't ask for disintegration, and Gaudin's woman made him command me not to take any requests for transformation of living beings until he's at least 16.~"

"Ah." That got another frown out of him. "It would be rather shortsighted to go through the rest of this mission with a single spell at your command. And, of course, if Ifrit were ever taken from you, that would leave you defenseless. You said that your parents were 'occultists'?"

That could mean that he had some significant magical potential of his own. Which was good. Because if Alex didn't, he was better off training with some actual weapons.

"Gran said it was a family thing, but Mummy didn't want to talk about it."

Curious. Very curious.

"...Well, in that case, I suppose I could try and teach you some of the basics of my form of magic." He paused. "Do you know if you have any particular elemental affinity? Generally, the offensive magic on Tellius centers around wind, fire, and thunder magic. There are one or two other types, of course, but they're not really my specialty."

"Ummmmmmm." Unsure Alex is unsure.

"~Kid. Think about it for a moment. What did your grandmother have?~"
"You? A genie?"
"~Djinn, damn it. I'm a djinn. And what did I tell you a djinn was?~"
"A trans-planar being of... scorching fire."
"~Which reflects a little on her specialty as an occultist, and maybe you should try starting with....?~"
"Fire?"

Soren smiled ever so slightly. "Well. I've known one or two Fire Sages in my time. And I believe I have a beginner's fire tome in my quarters. When would you like to start?"

Alex grinned. "Is now okay?"

Was he doing anything right now? No, he supposed not.

"Very well. But we'll have to backtrack to the Living Area to retrieve the right equipment." Soren generally didn't carry low-level tools around with him, after all. He turned, heading back toward the direction he'd come.

"In the meantime, what have you been doing to occupy your time?"

"Brill! Thank you!" And Alex will scamper alongside him. "Just looking around, saying hi to people, and finding out where kids can go for stuff here."

"Oh? Ah, yes. I saw a message about a group like that. The Outfielders, or something of the sort. Are you planning on joining? I'm rather surprised no one in the Magical Department offered you lessons, honestly."

Since that was, presumably, what they were there for -- to help out others in need.

"Maybe. They sound kind of like a hero team, and I've been on a hero team before. When we were in the Department, we were still figuring out what to do, so I didn't ask anybody to explain stuff."

"A 'hero' team?" Soren blinked. "Is that similar to a militia?"

"Ah, here we are." By now they were nearing his quarters, so he took the opportunity to duck in and snatch up the book in question. He handed it to Alex.

"So, what sort of magical training have you had so far?"

"Yeah. Mrs. Gaudin said they were 'a firm of superhuman emergency management specialists.' Mostly, they came in when the police and all couldn't handle something, and took care of it. Mrs. Gaudin mostly just did the organizing parts, and not the heroing parts, because she's a shifter and doesn't like to shift."

Alex took the book happily. "I know that a ring is not a lamp, and that Fair Folk don't like iron. That's...mostly it."

"Well, I suppose it was fortunate you had a group to look after you. A... shifter?" Soren had only understood about half of what Alex said. Just like when he was listening to Punchy.

Eerie.

"Hmm. In that case, let me explain a thing or two. Anima magic, which is my specialty, relies on a combination of the mage's magical power, and that of the spirits they recruit to do their bidding. Not summoned creatures -- those are entirely different and largely the domain of dark magic practitioners. Spirits, which exist in all things, living and nonliving."

"~He means she had the potential to take on animal characteristics, but actually using these abilities made her uncomfortable. So she looked after supplies and finances instead.~"

Alex listens to the explanation.
"Okay. Makes sense."

"Ah. Yes, I can see why that might not be the easiest talent to manage."

Soren nodded, then went on. "People talk of spells, but what is really written in these books are instructions. Spirits are, by and large, mindless -- they can perform simple tasks on their own, but for anything as complex as a spell, they need someone to direct them. As you become better able to do so and to draw on your own reserves of power, you'll be capable of greater and more complex spells."

He began walking again, toward that area that Aibghalien had pointed out to him as ideal for testing out magic. The Sensorium, was it?

"The script in a magical tome helps provide much of the basic instruction needed, allowing you to focus your concentration on more important things -- where to direct the spell's effect, for instance, or when to cut it off. So a mage with a tome is vastly more effective than one without one."

"It's important to learn how the spells work, but it's equally as important to learn how to focus your concentration and draw on magical energy. So in addition to your spell theory, I want you to spend at least an hour a day in a quiet place, in what you might call meditation: first to practice contact with the spirits, then learning how to direct them. I'll show you how it's done, of course..."

Alex listens very intently to all of this, looks at the book, asks a few questions, and pays attention to the answers. "Okay. I think this could really work, 'cause I'm not too bad at telling magic people what to do anyway!"

Ifrit sighs.

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