At the northernmost limits of the city of Alcacia, in an area typically reserved for farmland, there rested a single stone building. Smoke bellowed from its chimney despite the early morning hour. Heavy, rhythmic clangs of metal striking metal could be heard from the outside, the sharp noise easily penetrating through the building's thick insulation.
The blacksmith inside works tirelessly. Meticulously crafting his goods in secluded silence. At least he should have been alone, but for some strange reason a young boy was patiently waiting in the front shop of his smithy.
The blacksmith kept his eyes on his work, ignoring the boy and hammering away without paying him any mind, but he could feel the stare boring down on the back of his neck. His hammer slips in his hand, striking the metal at an odd angle which leaves an ugly blemish in the otherwise uniform steel.
"Dammit." He curses under his breath
He gently placed his hammer onto the tool bench next to him. A scowl forms on his sweaty face as he turns to leave his smithy.
As he his feet pass through the shop door, his trained craftsman eyes scan the boy in front of him from top to bottom. His eyes took in his face, which was young and delicate, then he moved to his body. It was thin, not having any muscle a blacksmith like himself could appreciate.
'What does a tiny kid like this want form my shop." His appraisal was coarse, but honest.
That's when he finally saw the two bronze guild cards around his neck.
The blacksmith couldn't comprehend how such a small and fragile boy could have achieved such a rank, nor could he understand why a D rank hunter acted so shy. Though when he saw the two sets of ears, indicators of mixed blood, he put together an idea. People can be quite cruel.
"What do you want lad? The shop doesn't open til midday, and I'm busy back here."
The blacksmiths voice was a slightly higher pitch than average, but incredibly gruff. His shorter stature, which allowed him to be eye level with the teen boy, stood in stark contrast to his incredibly wide and muscular frame. He had a bald head with a thick black beard that was littered by small tinges of gray throughout.
"Sorry to interrupt your work. I was actually hoping to apprentice under you for the next couple months as an enchanter, and if that's not possible I was hoping to be able to use your forge. I would pay you for space, of course." The boy requested earnestly.
"Apprenticeship for two months? Boy, you know that's not how that works, right? It takes years to even learn the basics of enchanting. What the hell do you think you can even learn in that time?" The blacksmiths' expression was somewhere between confused and offended.
"I know that's how it normally is, but… well it might be easier just to show you. You see, I-" The boy's explanation is cut off as his hair and eyes quickly shift into pure white.
"Great Agalia!" The blacksmith shouts.
"A pleasure to meet you. My name is Amadeus and I'm the one who will actually be learning under you." Amadeus' voice was calm, monotone, and slightly deeper than Reid's.
"Ah, uh… name's Kine. What uh, what just happened?" He asked, perplexed by the enigma in front of him.
"It's an unusual situation, but we are two souls in one body. When I take control, our appearance shifts to the one you see now." Amadeus answered with a casual tone.
"I think I nailed that explanation of our situation, what do you think?" Amadeus shares with Reid through their connection.
"No! No you didn't! You can't just shift like that! Let me finish explaining first, then shift!!!" Reid didn't know whether to be exasperated or impressed that Amadeus could ignore Kine's terrified reaction so completely.
"Is that so? That's quite something." Kine said with eyes wide as possible. "Regardless, that doesn't change much for your situation. Two of you or not, I can't teach you enchanting in two months. It's just not possible." He says while shaking his head.
"That would normally be the case, however." Amadeus looks around before leaning close to the smith.
"I'm a primal spirit. As such I have a special ability to analyze and understand any object in front of me. With that, I'm sure I could learn enchanting at an unprecedented rate." He flashes his second guild card to verify his claim.
"A primal spirit you say?!" Kine replies before bringing a hand to his beard.
The shocking revelations continue one after the other for the unprepared smith. He takes a long pause to process everything he just heard. After a thorough period of contemplation, a malicious smirk takes over the smith.
"Being a primal spirit changes things. It just might be possible. I'd be glad to take you on; in fact, I insist!"
The smith reaches out a hand which Amadeus promptly shakes, signaling the start of their relationship. Reid looks through their bond with worry at Kine's odd reaction, but the smith's next words extinguish them completely.
"Hehehe! When that elven bastard hears I'm teaching a primal spirit, he'll keel over in jealousy!"
Their mission was a success, even if Reid wasn't thrilled that pettiness was their saving grace. Obviously, Amadeus didn't mind in the slightest. If someone's foolishness happened to be of use to him, then of course he would take advantage of it.
The apprenticeship turned out to be incredibly beneficial to both parties. Kine was able to teach Amadeus more than just the basic principles of enchanting, he taught him about unique alloys that would be nearly impossible to discover on your own. He even so far as to teach him about the small intricacies of how materials can interact with mana and spirit energy, a subject in which even research institutes struggled.
Amadeus was also able to teach his master in turn. His millennia of accumulated knowledge had given him insight into metallurgy and material science that were unmatched. The blacksmith came to realize the depth of his knowledge early on, and would ask questions about theoretical materials and their properties, which Amadeus would answer like a walking encyclopedia.
⁘⁘⁘⁘
"Are you two ready to begin." Amadeus asked the twins seated in front of him.
"Yep!" Faeth shouted with glee.
"Yes." Faerie answered with a look of determination on her face.
The three were currently alone in the hunter's guild library. Multiple spell books filled the table in front of the twins, each with a quill and a stack of paper in front of them. Amadeus stool alone, situated between bookshelves to his right and the shelf to his left.
"Good. Then lets start this lesson from the beginning. What is magic?" He asks.
"Magic is using mana to cast spells, right?" Faerie answers.
"Correct. If you want to break it down to a more fundamental level, magic is the manipulation of mana to cause phenomena. There are many methods to casting magic, but they all work through that same principle. With that explanation in mind, how does chanting magic work?" He asks.
"You say certain things while channeling mana, and if you do it right, the spell activates." Faerie answers again.
"Yes, but why does it work? What are you doing to your mana that allows it create the spells effect?"
The twins look at each other, completely stumped by the question.
"I don't know..." Her voice trails off weakly as her shoulders slump.
"No need to be feel down. I'm not here to judge you, I'm here to help you learn. Besides, I'm not sure if many full fledged mages could answer that question perfectly." Amadeus say's with a surprisingly comforting tone.
Faerie's body straightens up as her eyes refocus with rapt attention.
"For chanting magic, the process actually begins up here." He says while pointing to his head. "You need a clear mental image of the spells intended result for it to work. Next you channel mana into your throat. Finally you speak the incantation to activate the spell. Simple right?"
"Yeah, even I know that Mr. Amadeus!" Faeth say's with a proud expression.
"Great! Now for the interesting part. I will need you to keep this a secret though, okay?"
The twins lean forward at the promise of a secret.
"What do you think I hear when someone casts a spell?"
"The same thing as us?" Faerie guesses.
"A bunch of gibberish!" Faeth shouts.
"You would think that, but no. When I first arrived here I had a spell cast upon me called 'imbue speech'. It allows me to understand all spoken and written languages known by the caster. That caster happened to be Kalkan." He pauses for dramatic affect before continuing.
"More importantly, I was able to see him use his own chanted magic, but what I heard wasn't some nonsensical expression, it was just a regular phrase. He was simply stating his intention. Telling his mana what he wanted it to do. And it's the same when I hear people chant down here as well. That's because chanting is using the language of the gods to command your mana into action!" He finishes his explanation with a satisfied smirk on his face.
The twins eyes go wide in front of him.
"Wow." Faerie says in quiet bewilderment.
"That's so cool!" Faeth shouts excitedly.
"That it is. Even cooler is that there's still so much more to learn and understand about the true depths and capabilities of mana. For me as well." Amadeus admitted.
"Really? I thought you knew everything." Faeth says plainly.
"No, not even close. Now moving on, I want to try to figure out what the problem is with Faerie's chanting. Could I get a demonstration from both of you?"
"Okay!" Faeth answers quickly before looking over to her sister.
Faeries expression turns dark. Even with Amadeus' gentle guidance, chanting was still a sore spot for her.
"Don't worry. I'm not expecting you to suddenly start casting. We're just running through the steps to see if I can identify the problem, and even if nothing helps, I have another method planned that will let you cast without issue." He assures her.
"Alright." She agreed. She was confident, not in herself, but in Amadeus being able to help her.
"Good." He nods.
Amadeus grabs a thin red book, flips through it to find the page he wanted, and placed it in front of them. He points to the chant written on the page: AMASFLAERI, or simply 'create flame' as Amadeus understood.
"We'll start with the beginner spell 'flame'. We'll break up the casting process. I'll call out each step and you'll follow along. Ready?"
""Yes."" They replied in unison.
"Create a mental image of a flame." Amadeus started.
He activated 'mana sense' and began to use analyze as he observed. His eyes shined with intense focus, looking for any small difference between the two casters during the process.
During the image phase, he noticed Faeth's mana became agitated while Faerie's remained still.
"Next, gather your mana."
Through his mana sense he noticed that Faerie was able to manipulate her mana at higher speeds and collect it with greater density than her twin. Interestingly Faeth's mana continued to persist in its agitated state, even when it was accumulated.
"Last step, speak the incantation."
"AMAS FLAEREE (Create Flayme)" Faeth's chant created an awkward flickering flame due to her mispronunciation.
"AMAS FLAERI (Create Flame)" Faerie's pronunciation was perfect, yet nothing happened.
Faerie looks at her empty hands with an expression that matched them. Just like Amadeus said, she wasn't expected it to work, but it hurt none the less.
"Interesting. Faerie, your mana manipulation and chant were perfect, better than Faeth's to be honest."
"Hey!" Faeth complained.
"I think your problem might lie with your visualization. Tell me what you were imagining."
"I don't know, a flame?" She sounded unsure in her response.
"Could you describe it in more details?" He pushed a little more.
"I don't know. I don't really understand. A flame is a flame right?"
Amadeus could tell from her expression that she was truly confused. But what was there to be confused about? All he was trying to do was have her describe the flame.
Then an idea popped into his mind. An old fun fact he had discussed at length with his fellow colleagues long ago.
"Faerie, when I ask you to visualize a flame, are you able to see it clearly in your mind? Can you see the colors? The shape? Or do you just know that you're seeing a flame?"
"I just know that it's a flame."
"That might be it then... Faerie, I believe you have something we called Aphantasia." He calmly delivered his speculative diagnosis.
"Aphantasia?" She asked.
"Yes. Its a term used to describe people with the inability to voluntarily visualize mental images. I believe that is inhibiting your casting. Unfortunately, this isn't something I can fix. It's just how your mind perceives and interprets the world around it." He describes her situation honestly.
"Then... does that mean I won't ever be able to use chanting magic?" As she asks as the heavy implications smothers the room.
"I can't be 100% certain, but I don't think you so." He says honestly.
Tears threaten to fall from Faerie's eyes, but she holds them back.
"But! The most important thing is that you can manipulate your mana, and quite efficiently I might add. So don't give up. Just because one route might be closed, that doesn't mean there aren't others. And beside, I promised you didn't I? That I would show you another way." He gets down onto one knee while comforting the young elf.
"Yeah. Y-You're right. I won't give up!" She said with renewed determination.
"Good. Besides, with your curiosity and desire to learn, I think you'd make a better rune mage anyway."
"You think I can be a rune mage?" She asks
"In time. I will warn you now though, it will take a lot of time, effort, and lots of studying to become one. Do you think you can handle that?"
Faerie nods her head vigorously.
"Good! Then we'll have a lot of work to do before I leave." He replies, letting a smile settle onto his face.
"Um, Mr. Amadeus?" Faeth asks while holding her hand up.
"Yes?"
"I thought you said you were going to teach her some brand new type of casting? Isn't rune magic pretty normal?" Her voice was somewhere between disappointed and confused.
"Oh, that? That is still the plan, but that casting method is so simple that there is no point in studying it. Plus I still have some work to do before that method will be ready to use. That's why, in the meantime, I'll teach her about runes." He replies casually.
"There's a casting method that easy to use? Please, tell me more!" Faerie couldn't hold back her excitement at mysterious method he offered.
"I cannot. It would ruin the surprise." He replied simply.
"Aww!"
"Boo!"
The twins complained as Amadeus softly chuckled. He let them calm down before continuing the lesson.