An Owl's Rise

With Melisandre finished reading Evelyn's magical energy it was time for her to move onto the next phase of training.

"Now then, with your absurd magical energy capacity we are going to have even more time than I thought to have you practice before you run out of steam." Melisandre said with a tired look in her eyes.

She was still reeling a bit from the measuring she had done of Evelyn's magical energy. But she was striving to move on even though what she considered the common sense of the world falling apart in the wake of Evelyn's existence.

"First you will need to learn to manifest your magical energy so that you can get a better feel for it. Currently you have just been fueling your affinities with magical energy and expelling the power, but now you need to focus on only expelling magical energy."

Melisandre quickly gave Evelyn another demonstration and told her to try and form a ball of magical energy on the tip of her wing.

'I can do this. I just did not know it was possible before, but now it should be easy.' Evelyn thought to pump herself up.

When she was ready, she closed her eyes and focused on her beast core which had been with her since her reincarnation on this world.

She dug deep into and tried moving the magical energy out and found that it came just as easy as usual.

The problem though was that it was already infused with power of her affinity since her core was where her power over wind originated.

As she brought the magical energy outside of her body all it did was create a gust of wind that whipped up the bit of dust in the room create by Melisandre's attacks.

"Again." Her master said with a reproachful look.

It was the first time that Melisandre had looked at her like this and it reminded Evelyn a bit of her father's eyes back on Earth, as he always looked at her like she was a disappointment.

At the very least there was no anger or intent to harm in Melisandre's eyes which kept Evelyn from curling up into a ball and preparing to be beaten.

'No, I am not like that anymore. I already killed those that hurt me. I killed my father in my old world, and that researcher in this one.' Evelyn thought as she fought back the fear and doubt that was welling up inside her.

However, just killing those that had wronged her was not enough to erase the scars from her mind.

She struggled for a few more moments to recenter her thoughts, and eventually she came back to the task at hand.

She tired once again, though this time she tired from her magic core instead of her beast core.

Unfortunately, this just stoked the heavenly flame that had melded with her magic core and given it a fire affinity.

A puff of crimson flame was all that escaped from her, and Melisandre told her to try again.

Five more minutes passed by as she tried to not manifest the affinity of either of her cores, but to no avail.

All she was capable of was expelling fire or wind and not actually manifesting her pure magical energy.

'Damn it. If my magic core as still in a null state, I bet this would have been easier. But the heavenly flame merging with it was part of what gave me better control over it, and I would have died without so I cannot really complain.' Evelyn thought as she was getting frustrated.

Again, and again she tired but to the same result, only able to create bursts of fire and wind.

Eventually she actually began to run out of magical energy in her body after around three hours of practice, when even the small amounts of magical energy she had been using caught up to her.

When she was practically running on empty, she slumped her shoulders and began breathing heavily.

She looked at Melisandre with a pitiful look on her face feeling like she was a failure.

Except the harsh expression Melisandre had been wearing was now gone replaced with a tender one that seemed proud.

Yet Evelyn could not understand why this was, as she had completely and utterly failed in manifesting pure magical energy.

"Sorry if I pushed you a bit hard there, but it is necessary to try over and over again until you finally get ahold of it. I never expected you to get close on the first day. If it was that easy everyone would have perfect control over their magic."

With this revelation Evelyn understood now that Melisandre seeming angry was just her trying to push Evelyn to her limits and to not allow her to let up.

Melisandre had never expected her to get it on the first day, or really anytime soon.

"Now take two of these and wait a few moments before trying again." Melisandre said as she handed a glass bottle to Evelyn.

Inside were some magical energy replenishment pills similar to the ones that Evelyn had received from Mason.

Though after she took one, she could tell that they were better than the pills that her brother had left her.

'I guess that Melisandre probably made these herself. I wonder exactly how good she is at alchemy?'

As the pills began restoring her depleted magical energy, Evelyn wondered about how high caliber of an alchemist her master was and what beast rank she was at.

'I guess she is probably above the awakened rank since she feels totally different from them and has a human form. So, is she a tyrant beast?' Evelyn speculated.

Still, she was not going to get any answers by just contemplating it. However, when she had finally gotten up the courage to ask her magical energy had fully replenished.

"That should be about right. Go ahead and try again. We still have a more than an hour and a half before I will begin a lesson with my attendants, so go all out until then."