15- from the very soul....

The year had just entered sun's height, meaning the nights were at the shortest they could get around the year. In such nights, everyone cherishes the little sleep they can get, especially, the working class, more particularly, the servants and courtiers of the nobles, because the nobles are notoriously strict in their schedules; having set times for meals, public dealings, business dealings – maybe they even have strict bathroom schedules. Or so Iris mused as she tried to sleep in the small room linked to the basement hall.

Since Zin had decided that he was going to 'research' this new 'revolutionizing' field of magic, the four of Cynthia, Iris, Elaine and Selene had been on perpetual watch around him to see that he does not somehow end up hurting himself. And yet, to their happiness – or is it disappointment (?) – Nothing happened. The doofus had been sitting there, concentrating, trying to move a coin set a certain distance from him through the sheer strength of his will.

His will and simple verbal commands.

All without using any known magical formula or casting technique.

The result had been both as expected – in one word - disappointing. Well, disappointing as always expected, as Elaine had phrased it, this matter being one of the rare occasions the two had actually gathered on a single opinion.

And now Zin's voice was literally hammering on her nerves, as she had been trying to catch some shut-eye after handing the duty to watch over Zin to Selene. The same repeated verbal commands that she had been hearing as she had watched him sitting day-after-day in seclusion in the basement, his eyes set in a resolute look, as he had all but foregone sleep, food, and other needs.

Although his high magical reserves had helped him a lot by increasing his physical quality and endurance limits, his disturbing mental state and the deep circles below his eyes could not be hidden.

And now, after these five days, watching him fade in this madness he called research, they were just waiting. Waiting for his parents to notice his state, and come to force some sense into his increasingly abnormal mind – or for one amongst themselves to just….

"Stop it. Stop this madness. You are not just only crazy yourself, you are even driving us crazy. You asked us to help you in research and now you're trying to do it alone and accomplishing nothing but accumulating madness and harming yourself. Oblivion, your mental state is so distorted you can end up being a minion of Sheogorath….."

'Snap, yeah that's the word' Iris muttered to herself, as she crawled out of bed as she left the room to see Cynthia standing facing Zin, who had come out of his trance like state of concentration. Selene was watching with her jaw hanging open as Cynthia was all mother-ing up on Zin, scolding him as Elaine watched - all of whom who had been forced to watch over Zin as he meditated, trying to...

Iris rolled her eyes. They couldn't just leave him alone, always being ready for any emergency, any accident; sleeping in adjoining small rooms in the basement to be near in case of any urgent need, not even casting noise cancellation spells only to snap….

And then Iris saw it. She saw the sheepish expression on Zin's face, so like a child realizing its mistake.

Well, she privately thought, only seeing that expression on his face was worth all the trouble he put them through.

Although Cynthia didn't think so, she did calm down considerably after seeing his guilty and 'realization-dawning' expression. She walked up to him, pulled him by his arm to make him stand up, moving him to a chair before asking him with a solemn expression; "tell me what it is. We won't laugh. We will only help, and even if we don't wholly catch up, maybe an advice or two from us can help you sort it out for you."

Zin gave an awkward grin. Seriously, he never thought that he was beyond seeking their help in magical matters, but the theory he was relying on was so absurd sounding, even to himself, that he couldn't just phrase it to them. He felt awkward telling them what he hypothised, because he couldn't just make up a solid enough story to support it. Even considering the level of Bull shit he had been feeding them as regards his source of scientific knowledge.

And yet he knew he had to tell them now. No matter what, he couldn't escape having to tell them what was going on after they were confronting him after they had been taking care of him over all those years and especially these past days.

Hesitantly, he began, "you see, we have been trying to alter different species of organisms, both animals and plants, but it all ends in failure.

Our experimentation started with detecting the magika capability and affinity of different races, we studied curses, their effects and how they can be broken. Next we studied plants, both magical and otherwise, but in both cases when we arrived at the stage of modification done by us, we discovered ourselves to be powerless.

Not because of lack of precedents to copy, or test subjects, but due to lack of control over our magika. We couldn't control our magika to selectively tamper our subjects, and were limited to spell models and formulae, which resulted in the whole process becoming overtly complicated and difficult.

The more specific and detailed the operation, the greater care should be given, and the more possibilities were created, resulting in barely any progress being made, due to our desired result being one in close to infinite probabilities, the probability that it appears is difficult to be attained.

So I decided to attain greater control over my magika." Here Zin paused, and his sheepish grin and guilty expression disappeared, only to be replaced by a resolute expression, and dead-set eyes. "I wished to attain greater control over my magika and that is through commanding my magika."

The three apart from Cynthia gasped, but Cynthia remained silent, her eyes narrowed, as if she was considering Zin's words. After a prolonged silence, in which Zin and the three looked at Cynthia, Cynthia looked up at Zin with a calculative look and asked, "I wouldn't ask your source, because no doubt it would be some so-called far-off knowledge, but instead, what I want to ask is that: are there any examples for your direction?"

Another silence, and then Zin spoke "the Daedra, the Aedra, a dragon speaks and the world listens."

Another round of gasps from the trio, before they turned their attention to Cynthia who had again sank into deep consideration. Time passed as her eyebrows narrowed more and more, as she appeared to be pondering Zin's answer.

Then Cynthia looked up. She walked to an ingot of malachite that had been lying on the shelf and picked it up instead of calling it through magic. She returned to Zin and the other three, as their four sets of eyes watched her.

Cynthia held up the ingot of malachite for them to see and then started saying, "see this ingot. I can summon it through magic, change its shape, make it float, and perform a variety of operations on it. The more complicated and detailed the operation, the more fundamental change I want to make it go through, the same extant of complication must be the spell model I cast. Until there will be certain operations I cannot perform on it, which only legendry mages have been heard to perform, but the Daedra and Aedra have performed it a lot, and easily, like changing one metal to another, etc.

Combining this with your theory of the world being in a balanced state without magic, and magic influencing the world, bending its physical and other rules, I can understand that it magic is in fact the will of these powerful beings, whether Aedra or Daedra being forced upon the world and its laws, forcing it to change according their will. The residual force of theirs lingering in this world is the ambient magika that we harness through our precious tinkering via calculations and formulae.

As for the dragons, they issue commands, and the world listens. It's effectively a dragon enforcing its will upon the world, resulting in the world relenting. That's why those who use thu'um learn it, but are always much weaker than a real dragon as recorded in books, and take much longer to learn." Cynthia smiled looking at Zin.

Zin was puzzled. He couldn't get how her explanation was anything like an explanation. She basically repeated what he told her, only in much detail. He looked at her, almost pouting like a child; "how is this different from what I told you?"

"Oh sweetheart, didn't you get what I was trying to tell you? The difference between you doing magic and a higher being doing magic is that you are utilizing their residual magic, while they are using their will to do magic. The fundamental difference isn't the tongue or the level of concentration. It's the difference between the levels of soul. You are a mortal soul, while they are higher souls. Their will is magic, while ours is the driving force for our actions only. That is the fundamental difference between their magic being an arm and will of theirs, and we exploiting it only through spells and formulae…."