Kalla interrupted her lesson briefly, to allow Lith to have lunch and resuming immediately after he had finished. Lith filled several notebooks with his notes, describing all the spells she was teaching him, the feeling it gave when she used them on him or on a test subject, and the differences with his own performance.

Learning from true magic was both harder and easier compared to fake magic. Lith hadn’t to memorize any magical word, accent, or hand sign, but he needed a deep understanding of the how and why the mana had to flow in a certain way rather than another.

Kalla knew that she couldn’t possibly teach him in a day what she had learned in months during her travels or thanks to Scarlett mentoring her. So she imparted him the most solid foundations she could about her work, hoping he could achieve the same results through study and effort.

***

Meanwhile, inside the headquarters, Scarlett was teaching Protector how to use his newfound powers. Unlike Kalla, he lacked an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. After evolving, he had been content enjoying his life with Selia, studying magic only during his free time.

– “Damn, this country bumpkin of a Skoll is like the proverbial frog in the well.” Scarlett inwardly cursed. “If after discovering the outside world the frog decided to not give a damn about it, of course. He is by far the weakest of us three, I need to bring him up to speed and fast!”–   Scarlett was dissecting one of Balkor’s thralls they had captured, using her enchanted pince-nez to better understand the structure of the spells that kept the undead together along with its abnormal blood core. She would pass it to Protector from time to time, showing him how to recognize a spell’s keystones.

“I knew there was something wrong with Balkor the moment Linjos described to me his creations.” Scarlett explained.