Phantasia: The Princess Knight

Chapter 10: The Steps Of Magic Part One

After filling her belly to its max. Alicia was feeling very tired. Even still she got up and collected the plates, bowls, and utensils and brought them into the kitchen area. There was a small sink sticking out of the wall which Alicia placed everything inside and started to wash the dishes. Berlin walked out of his room and walked to the kitchen silently. He snapped his fingers making his whole body disappear and snuck a peek at the young girl who was diligently washing dishes while bobbing her head up and down almost falling asleep in the process of her work. He found this to be a very amusing sight.

Alicia had no idea she was being observed this entire time. She just wanted to make herself useful. So no matter how tired she was she made sure she washed the dishes and cleaned up whatever mess was made. After she was done she walked out of the kitchen and sat back in the chair at the table waiting for Berlin to come back so she could say a word of thanks and good night. But as she waited her eyes became heavier and heavier until they slowly closed tight.

Berlin reappeared next to her and carefully lifted the sleeping little girl and carried her to her bedroom. He placed her in her bed and pulled the covers up to her neck. He pushed a lock of loose hair back behind her ear. He gently smiled at Alicia as he spoke softly: "From this day forward you will be my daughter. The Third Princess of Alastine, Alicia Von Alastine!"

Alicia slept soundly for most of the night until she started having dreams of her death. She had a dream of when she was in the car trying to save the baby and the baby's father. She dreamt of the car falling but never hitting the ground. It only continued to fall into an abyss of black nothing.

"Ah!" Alicia woke up out of her sound sleep in a cold sweat. She looked around her and let out a sigh of relief. She was not dead, she was still alive.

Alicia did not get up right away, she sat there silently in her bed. She had no idea how she even made it into bed which confused her greatly. The last thing she remembers was sitting at the table waiting for Berlin to come back. The only possible thing she could think of was that Berlin actually carried her to bed. This thought made her blush. After waking up a bit more Alicia got herself ready for a long day of training. She could not tell what time it was or how long she had slept for. But she felt unusually refreshed.

She exited the room to find that Berlin was already up and making breakfast. "You're awake, that's good. Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes come help set the table."

"Master Berlin thank you for dinner last night! I am sorry I must have fallen asleep while I was waiting for you. I wanted to give my thanks last night." Alicia blushed a little. She felt bad because she should have said thank you right at the beginning when she received the food.

"It's fine! I know you are thankful. An unthankful person would not have cleaned the dishes. You are a good girl with a good heart. Come now let's eat. We have a long day ahead of us." Berlin said as he started to plate the food on the stove into some dishes.

After they ate and cleaned up Berlin had Alicia sit at the table and take out the books she received on how to read and write. He taught Alicia slowly allowing her to take her time and learn each letter and word at her own pace. After two hours of book studies, it was now time for a magic lecture. So the two moved outside to the newly created training area.

"Alicia I want you to know that the fundamentals of Magic are very important. Image is key when creating magic. The stronger her image is of what you are trying to do the stronger your magic will be. In case of fire magic, it would be like this." Berlin turned the palm side of his hand up and a small flame appeared.

"This flame is small and weak. It's just like the flame on a candle. That is because I used a candle for the image of the flame. Now if I did this..." Berlin put out the flame in his hands and suddenly a large flame ten times the size of the previous erupted from his hand.

"This flame is much stronger! That is because I used a campfire as my base image! This also applies to the way something is shaped like this..." Berlin extinguished the flame in his hand once again and a new one formed but this time it was in the shape of a magma lion.

"After time and you learn to control your magic well, you can make it move how you want. It will not have intelligence and you will need to be concentrating on its movements, so it will not actually be alive. As you advance in magic eventually you will be able to do things like summoning things to fight at your side. All this depends on your ability to understand the concepts of magic and how well you imagine things." Alicia watched in awe as Berlin created many different things with this magic. She hoped that she would be doing the same soon.

"Master Berlin you said imagery is the key to casting magic but what else is there that is needed in order to cast magic?" Alicia could understand everything but this part. She did not seem to get how just picturing something could create magic.

"That is a good question. In the air, there is a thing we now call Oxygen that allows us to breathe. There is also another substance called Magicules. These Magicules are what we use to build up our magic power. Magic power must be slowly cultured into our body allowing us to use the mana that is created to create magic. Once you start taking in the Magicules you will slowly develop what's called a Magi Sack in your lower abdomen. The bigger your Magi sack is the stronger your magic power will be and the more mana you will have. Mana is located inside the Magi Sack." Alicia did her best to take in Berlin's every word. She wanted to commit everything he was saying to memory so that she could progress faster.

Alicia did not want to waste all the effort Berlin was putting into his teachings. She did not want Berlin to look at her in disappointment. She wanted to live up to his expectations. So her gaze never left him as he spoke. The words he was saying reminded her of a few novels she read in her previous life. It was similar but different at the same time. The way Berlin was explaining it was the same thing as cultivating spiritual qi and storing it in your dantian. This concept was not new to her but on earth, this was all just a fantasy so she had no idea how to actually do it.