Balls in the face

It was still dark when Vincent woke up. The room was quiet when he changed his clothes, and the hallways were almost empty as he slandered through the corridors into the garden.

He still remembered the path, of course he did.

The air was cold and fresh when he walked next the small stone paragon and intricate irrigation systems he spotted jesterday. It was not the shortest way, but the night sky looked impressive and the blend of foreign styles and plants with traditional Roman architecture was impressive.

"Praise the moon." He raised both his arms to the sky.

~

His stern brother raised his eyebrows.

"You are on time, how unexpected."

Vincent shrugged his shoulder and placed his hand on his heart. "I am a man of my word, what else did you expect."

A small projectile grazed his skin, opening up a small cut. Just beneath the last one.

"We will begin with your magic training, like last time. This time however we will try to raise your concentration over a long period of time."

He flipped a small coin of the lowest denunciation towards Vincent – mid flight it split into three separate pieces, cut by an invisible blade.

"Try to touch them and for now just keep them in the air, separately."

Vincent spun his hand in a noble bow he had learned form his father. "Your wish is my command."

Despite his attics, his eyes remained focused on the three small pieces of metal hanging from his right hand.

It worked for a moment, until the wind disrupted his control and one of them fell. A pristine sound echoed through the enclosed cellar.

His brother remained silent.

A beat of sweat rolled down Vincent's face. It was annoying, jet he did not wipe it away. He did not dare to.

The three metal plates were glued to his fingers. He had found out that increasing the surface area decreased the difficulty.

Jet it became harder and harder as his mana and focus began to dwindle.

Still, he would not give up. Everything slowly disappeared until only the metal remained. He did not even see his own core.

"Stop."

A strong hand grasped his shoulder pressing hard.

Vincent lost his focus and almost collapsed, only being held up by his brother.

"Any more and the over draft will have serious consequences."

He suddenly noticed how drained he was, as nausea hit him.

"Thanks, I definitely need a break."

He could see Arminius look at him with the same ice blue unchanging eyes.

"I never spoke about a break. Just about a different exercise."

Vincent raised his hand, almost showing a middle finger. Until the wound on his face burned.

"Explain, why would I work rather than sleep now. Even if I try to learn, tomorrow I will have remembered nothing." That was a lie.

His brother heaved a sight.

"Because we will only be able to effectively training when you are in the state of overdraft. So don't complain, it will one day save your life."

"So I am only to sit here, and have my eyes closed. Are we meditating?"

He could hear a person coming into the room delivering something?

"Close, you also have to doge."

A small ball of grain hit him straight in the face. It was wrapped into rough fabric. It came as an absolute surprise and his whole body shook, wanting to run away. Jet he was tired, so tired...

"Try to feel them before they hit you. A mages mind has a natural affinity to mana, and mana in different shapes or forms is everywhere."

At the end of the day, Vincent was able to doge a collective total of two hits. Both were luck.

"I think it is because your mana recovered too quickly, rendering the latter half of the training ineffective. We will need to try and fix that. If that does not work, we will need to try and replicate my experiences in persia."

Arminius's voice trailed of.

"So now that you have more or less recovered, let us begin drawing runes."

Vincent's whole body was sore, and exhausted. He had more blue spots of skin than white one. With a weak sight he did not even try to resist. His earlier energy drained long ago.

"Why do we even repeatedly drain my magic?"

Arminius threw him a strange look, his eyes furrowed.

"Is it not obvious, your talent is barely average and right now you have but a single element. If you even want to get accepted into the academy we will have to try hard and improve your mana volume."

Lines of blue light were traced on top of the parchment. They were made out of pure mana, and drawn in strange straight letters.

'Wait, they are part of the runes in my magic sircle.'

Vincent looked at Arminius, wondering how he had known them so well.

"Have you never wondered, how those inheritance circles are made? Naturally I can only help you draw them, the final step requires you to do alone. But we are still far from that."