Medea was standing and actively deflecting little stones that were flying at her with surprising speeds with the training stick her trainer had fashioned for her. He was standing three meters away from her. Holding his hand upright, he made little stones appear in his palm, and one after the other, they flew at the adorable girl. She managed to deflect only a small number of the stones flying at her, but she kept the correct posture, grip, and lever. Mal was observing her. Her progress looked very promising to him.
Gazing at the rocks appearing above his palm and shooting upward, he had to stop and simply think about what exactly shaping was again.
'How, in the world, am I doing this? Am I seriously creating energy right now? Am I going against the law of preservation? Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, and matter is a form of energy.'
And right now, stuff was materializing in his hands. He could understand elemental magic—that could very well be energy from the outside being transformed into fire. But into matter? With the equivalent of the speed of light to the power of two? You needed a gigantic amount of energy to create matter. That wasn't what was happening.
'Am I truly going against one of the most fundamental laws of nature?'
With these thoughts on his mind, he decided to stop with the fencing for today. Medea was too tired, and it was clearly visible. Yet she seemed so focused on continuing that Mal couldn't help but feel serious respect toward her. She will actually be a great warrior.
With that, Medea sat on the ground, completely tired. It was pleasant suprise that right at that time, the doors opened and Alexander came in with his magical, awesome teapot. Mal didn't like old people—well, people in general—but Alexander had really gotten to his heart.
"I have come to look at you," he said as he walked toward them while being supported by his cane. "Thade just formed his core, and Leonard has started his training. How lucky we are that we found ourselves with a soldier and a fencer."
"That's great news, Alexander, thank you," Mal answered as he watched the grandpa pour tea into two cups.
While they sat for a while, Mal's role as teacher ended and they both became students. Unfortunately, they didn't have a teacher. He would wager that he was probably the most advanced shaper in the city now. He trained his few created spells to hone them to perfection, but he was also watching Medea. This was her true talent. Mal was surprised at first, but now even more so: Medea could hold two incantations at once.
Mal could perform two incantations in chronological order, but he couldn't have two incantations active at the same time. If he made an incantation to make his umbrella sharper, as he had many times, his umbrella was simply sharper. It stayed as such as long as he wanted it to, but if he then cast his fireball spell, the sharpening incantation on his umbrella would no longer be there. This meant that Medea could cast one incantation to strengthen her body and another to make her faster. This was simply too useful.
"I think it's time to get you a sword," Mal said as he offered her his hand to stand up.
"But... where would you find one?"
"We just have to go a little closer to the cathedral."