First Meeting With Erhaz

After dinner I go back to my room and begin my daily practice, starting with one of the Tryer Circulation Techniques. We had been taught all three of the techniques this week and had been told to pick and practice the one which fit us best. I found the one I preferred yesterday and decided to start practicing with it. Once I am done with that, I pick up my Basic Noer Studies textbook. From what I had seen so far and what Drew and Lathia had told me, Basic Noer Studies will form the bulk of what I will learn as an Apprentice, and I am not too surprised. From the little I had learned so far I have been able to do a lot of things I couldn't before, as well as form new things on my own. Basic Noer Studies just gave me a lot more options on what to use magic for and I can't help but anticipate what I will be able to do with magic once I am a Pre-protector.

Right now, I am studying the variants of telekinesis. It surprised me a bit when I discovered that there were different ways to use telekinesis each with its own particular noer. Though to be honest, all of them just consist of the base telekinetic word with a few more alphabets added to give them their specific functions. The one I am learning right now gives me the ability to use telekinesis to bind a person. It seems like the kind of thing that will be generally useful to learn. By the time I am done reading, it is getting close to midnight, still, I don't feel like I have done much. Learning how to use the noer is very easy, but I can't help but feel that I still need to use it on something to really get the feel of it. For a moment I entertain the thought of putting on a mask and going out to look for crime, but I quickly dismiss the thought, remembering the feeling I had felt with Tahku earlier. In the end, I decide to sleep.

I wake up early the next day and after doing my chores, cleaning up, and having breakfast, I find myself with nothing to do. I pick up my phone and drop it soon after, the urge to practice what I had learned yesterday is almost driving me crazy. In the end, I decide to go for a walk, any animal I spot during the walk will be the recipient of my experimentation. As I'm about to leave the house, I spot Emily also heading out.

"Are you going out?" I ask her.

"Obviously? Are you going to work?"

I shake my head. "I'm just going for a walk."

She gives me an incredulous look. "A walk? Man, you are really changing." I ignore her and after picking up a spare key, I leave the house. As I walk I begin to think of where I could go to find animals to experiment on. In the end, I decided to go to a nearby park. The park is nothing but a boundary to the woods behind it, the woods being my main destination. If I can't find animals there, then there is no hope for me finding any animals. I have seen deer a few times in the park and assume that they come from the woods, hopefully, I will be able to find one today.

I get to the park and head north, where the woods are located. After walking for a while, I decide to stop. At this point, I have already left the park and am in the woods, but since I have never been here before, I have no idea which direction to go next. After standing in a spot for some moments I use an enhancement noer. Almost immediately my five senses improve. I can hear the sound of birds far above me, the wind rustling through the trees, and critters moving on the ground not too far from me. The woods are teeming with life, I come to a realization at that moment. I have always known that but as I stand still and listen the fact hits me harder than it ever has. I hear a strange sound somewhere to my right and begin moving towards it. It is very far away so I cannot hear it clearly, still, I cannot help but hope it is a deer.

As I get closer to the sound it becomes more erratic, and numerous, somehow. As I get closer still, I suddenly realize that there are people in front of me, what I had been hearing were footsteps. At the same time, I feel something familiar. Uua. There are people in front of me using magic. I face a dilemma at that moment: keep moving forward and see what is going on, or turn around. I remember the terrible power I felt yesterday. If this is related to that, then it would be best for me to turn back, but the Uua I felt doesn't feel too strong.

Before I can make my decision the footsteps head quickly in my direction and two people appear in my vision. A boy and a girl. They look a few years older than me and a brief look with second sight shows me a dim aura around them. Comparing it with what I see on the Laens, I can immediately tell they are magic users, but not particularly powerful ones. Also, I can tell that they are not Laens, the lack of the seal on their foreheads is a dead giveaway. Because of Tahku I know that there are magic users apart from Laen in this world, still, I have only ever really met Laen. Seeing two people who are obviously capable of magic that are not Laen surprises me. As I look at them, I cannot help but wonder how they got their power and who trained them. They notice me standing there and they freeze. Some seconds pass and I get the feeling of being examined before the boy sneers at me.

"Laen," he says contemptuously.

As he says that I immediately become irritated. Maybe I can use him for practice, I think. He reaches for something in his pocket and my heartbeat spikes as I become extremely alert. I raise my hand and immediately he drops to his knees, his hands staying rigidly at his sides. The girl attacks then, throwing an orb of Uua at me. I use a protection noer and a transparent shield appears in front of me, easily neutralizing the weak attack. I raise my other hand and she also drops to her knees, like the boy.

I am surprised by how easily I just took them down. To be honest I expected more of a fight from two human beings. The golems I fought during my Apprentice exams were harder than this. I feel some sort of pressure, reducing the effects of my spell, and know that they are trying to escape my spell, still, they are too weak and with a little more Uua, I suppress their powers.

"Why are you attacking us?" the girl asks. "We did nothing wrong."

"You are the one that attacked me," I tell the girl, before nodding at the boy, "And the only reason I suppressed him was that I thought he was going to attack me."

"Just let us go," the girl says with gritted teeth.

It is then I realize I am enjoying this. Still, I let them go, they were obviously too weak to harm me, just as long as I remain cautious. "What were you doing?" I ask them as they get up.

"None of your business." the boy spits, murder in his eyes.

I don't ask again. After they leave I turn around and head home, I have accomplished what I came here to do. And also I have found a way I could suppress Keldin in our fight on Monday. I have a lot more Uua than him and using that with the restriction noer, I could end the fight almost as soon as it has begun. Even if he tries to resist, I could use my Uua to overpower him.