An Owl's Rise

Listening carefully Evelyn took in all that Melisandre had said and was surprised to find out that magic really did not need any spells. They were imply just used as a crutch by most humans to create complex phenomenon.

"Now I have taught you the basics that you needed to know, so now it is time to practice on your control. But first I have been wanting to measure your magical energy." Melisandre said with a twinkle in her eyes.

She then pulled out what looked like a pendant form her storage item and placed it around Evelyn's neck.

On this pendant there looked to be a gauge, though there were not any numbers on it so it must have just measured general amounts.

'I wonder how I compare to others. I imagine with two cores I should be above the curve. But will this thing even register my magic core since I doubt other beasts have one?' Evelyn thought unsure of how this measuring device worked.

She waited with bated breath as the she craned her neck downwards in order to look at the gauge on the pendant as it slowly moved from left to right.

Eventually it stopped around thirty percent of the way to maximum value and Evelyn frowned seeing that it did not go very far.

She had been hoping that her magical energy would actually be strong enough to send the gauge all the way to the right, but it appeared she was not anywhere close.

Yet Melisandre's reaction was enough to tell her that what had just happened was not normal, as her master's eyes had gone wide with astonishment.

"It is just one thing after another with her." Melisandre mumbled to herself in a bit of a daze.

For her Evelyn defied all common sense in many ways, and this was just the latest in her defying the normalcy of this world.

"Evelyn, I want to try measuring again with another tool just to make sure I got the correct results." Melisandre said as she hastily took the pendant off.

Quickly she pulled out another one, though this one was quite a bit larger and more ornate looking than the one that Melisandre had just used.

In fact, it must have been made to be used on much larger owls, as Melisandre had to adjust the chain on it so that it did not just flop onto the floor while it was around Evelyn's neck.

'Ugh its heavy.' Evelyn thought as she strained her neck to keep the pendant up.

It was made out a thick brass like metal, and the pendant was bigger than her head, and weighed quite a bit.

And an unfortunate outcome of its heaviness meant that Evelyn could not gaze down at the gauge this time and just had to wait for Melisandre to finish reading it.

"Looks to be exactly the same as the last one." Melisandre said to herself as she peered closely at the gauge on the pendant.

Once she was satisfied that she had gotten a correct reading, she shook her head and then fixed Evelyn with an exacerbated look.

"I do not know how you did it, but you have way more magical energy in you than you should to the point that it is absurd."

After saying this Melisandre took the large pendant back from Evelyn and gave a long sigh while trying to figure out what to do with her new absurd apprentice.

She was now beyond just being talented and had entered the realm of an absurdity that should not have existed as far as Melisandre knew.

"Um, could you explain? I do not have any reference for how much magical energy that I have in relation to others." Evelyn said with a curious and fearful expression.

She was starting to fear that maybe she was so beyond what was reasonable that Melisandre was going to abandon her from the indifferent tone in her master's voice.

Luckily it was not that Melisandre did not care, just that she was so shocked that her mind was racing to keep up.

"Yeah, I suppose you would not know how to read these gauges, so let me go ahead and tell you how far above the curve you are." Melisandre said as she pulled out the first pendant they had used.

"This magic tool is used to measure beasts up to the peak of the awakened stage, where the strongest would bring the gauge to its limit. Even my attendants only go around ninety-two percent of the way and both of them are very talented even by the Roost's standards." Melisandre explained.

"You on the other hand as a high tier fiend beast should have maxed out somewhere around fourteen percent at the absolute best. Yet you somehow got it all the way to thirty percent, more than twice as far as what should have been possible. This is the range I would expect from a strong low tier awakened beast, or an average mid-tier awakened beast here in the Roost. It is very far from what you should have."

Having it spelled out to her like this by Melisandre, Evelyn now fully understood just how abnormal she really was.

From what Melisandre said it was clear that she had around twice as much magical energy than she should have, which made since she had two cores instead of one.

"This is just great, now I am going to have to make sure no one else measures you. This is beyond my expectations, but I guess this at least allows me to understand how you survived taking in so much magical energy." Melisandre said with an exhausted tone.

She had figured that Evelyn would be around the maximum potential for a high-tier fiend beast, but instead she blew well past it and had as much as many awakened beasts which was unheard of.

'Even just an average beast at her level would only bring the gauge up around eight percent, but she is well beyond the amount of magical energy any fiend beast should have.'