Now that I’ve finished planting the vegetable seeds, I want to go to Lang Village and learn the songs for the summer festival dances.
Problem is… when I played my flute while full of magic, it made all the drying herbs go whoosh and fly everywhere.
“Zoe, you mustn’t play the flute with magic in it,” Selina scolded me.
One of the flying herbs had landed right on her head while she was reading on the sofa. No wonder she got cranky.
“I didn’t mean to put magic in it,” I said.
I just played it like normal!
“Hm… in that case, maybe you should start practicing like the Troubadours, using both your harp and your flute. That might help you figure out how to not use magic.”
Selina’s been researching literature about Troubadours too, but all that remains are legends saying they existed in the fallen Shazane Empire.
In other words, they don’t exist anymore.
Selina had studied magic in the western kingdom, but even there, she hadn’t found much information about the Troubadours.
“It says here that the Troubadours of the Shazane Empire used magical harps as their tools.”
Ah, so that’s why she brought me a harp from the royal capital.
But while the flute is definitely a magical tool, I don’t think the harp is.
Selina seems to think the same—ever since she saw the flute, she’s had doubts about the harp too.
She wonders, “What if we just poured magic into the harp and made it a magical tool?”
“The flute just needed me to blow magic into it, but the harp... I have no idea how to do that.”
I mean, I get how to mix magic with my breath. But how would it work with a harp?
“Maybe try channeling magic through your fingertips as you play?” Selina suggests.
Ugh, that sounds hard!
“Zoe, you really need to learn how to control your magic. Strengthening your body, focusing power in your fingertips… That’s basic training for any mage.”
She’d never taught me any of that before!
Not that I could say it out loud. If I did, Selina would definitely get mad.
So I kept my mouth shut.
“Start by learning to circulate magic through your body.”
“But... how am I even supposed to do that?”
Selina stood up from the sofa and took both my hands.
“Like this. Feel the magic flowing through you.”
Her magic enters me through her hands, buzzing and tingling as it runs through my body.
“Once you learn to sense your own magic and move it around, channeling it into your fingers will come naturally.”
Then she flops right back onto the sofa and starts reading again.
Wait... that’s it?
Some teacher you are!
Honestly, all her magic lessons so far—like Air Cutter, Rasonpré, Storage, the Waymarks and all that—have been totally random.
Wouldn’t a real magic teacher have started with the basics, like how to circulate magic?
Anyway… Remembering how Selina’s magical power tingled through my body, I try to circulate my own magical power.
But after a few loops—Whoa!
My head starts spinning.
I wobble and fall flat onto the sofa where Selina is lying down.
“Zoe!” she snaps.
I apologized, but wow, that was rough.
“Whew... maybe trying to learn it all at once is too much,” Selina mutters. “How did I learn it, again...? Ugh, no, I don’t even want to remember...”
That bad, huh?
Whatever training she went through must have been awful—and now she wants me to go through it too!
“Zoe, go sit outside and close your eyes. Try to breathe in the magic particles in the air, and circulate your magic through your body.”
“Hmm? That doesn’t sound so bad.”
Weird. Selina’s grinning like she knows something I don’t.
“Do that for about two years, and you should get the basics down.”
“Two years?! I can’t play the flute for two years?! I finally got to buy one!”
I complain, but Selina won’t listen.
“Complaining won’t help. Still... yeah, two years of just basics sounds harsh. So here’s the deal: practice this every morning. Once you can play the flute without using magic, you’re good to go.”
Now that, I can work with.
I step outside and sit down on the grass.
“Magic particles in the air... Wait, no one taught me how to do that!”
Scratching my head, I take a deep breath.
Selina once said there’s lots of magic particles here in the Great Forest. That’s why herbs grow even in winter. That’s why the monsters are huge.
They must be absorbing those particles too!
So if I could pour magic into the flute—as in using magic through my breath—then maybe I could breathe in the particles around me and pull them into my body the same way.
I focus on that image, taking deep and slow breaths.
“Is this even working? I guess next comes circulating magic through my body, right?”
Last time I tried, it made me dizzy, so this time I’d go slow and steady.
Maybe Selina’s dramatic demo was a bad example?
I keep the flow nice and gentle—and I’m not dizzy again!
“Am I doing it right? Is this all I do?”
I kept it up all morning, and yeah... now I get why Selina hated it.
It’s so boring!