A/N So this series and Light Up were inspired by the song "Run" by Snow Patrol (It kept playing in my head while I was writing anyhow). The chapter titles are lyrics from the song, go check it out it's lovely. Also, if you don't want extra angst in your life, ignore the last italicized part in parentheses.

As if You Have a Choice

Mateo on the essence of magic and finding the confidence to free Isa and the abuelos from the painting.

"He wishes magic would come as naturally to him as it does for them."

Though in certain moments, it seems that it can.

The thing about magic, one of the first things any magician is taught, is that the magic does not come from within.

If you are born with magical tendencies, it does not mean that you yourself are magical. It doesn't even mean that you'll be any good at wielding magic. It means that you are now a bearer of magic, a designated portal through which the energy of the universe can flow.

And it can be overwhelming.

You have so much potential power, and if you navigate through your studies too fast, if you're hungry for the power instead of the knowledge or the responsibility, it will consume you.

So Mateo hesitates, he gets nervous, and he messes up in ways that cause the pages to explode out of his books like a feather pillow in a fight at a slumber party. The wreckage floats slowly down around him giving him ample time to think about how he'll ever be able to get three human beings out of a two dimensional painting in one piece.

And he realizes that it doesn't matter how he feels about it, it has to be done. He has to continue his training to put things right when the time comes. It's what he was meant to do, what he has been told he must do ever since his grandfather's death, when the gray wizard pressed a paper into his grandson's hand with a final determined spark in his eye.

Mateo keeps the reversal spell for the painting hidden on his person at all times.

So he tries and fails and tries and fails again. Because he knows he has the power to be some kind of small hero. To be an immense force of destruction - just enough to help destroy what Shuriki created.

And when the time comes, he focuses on the strength of the family in the painting, the perseverance of his grandfather, the fortitude of those who suffered under the sorceress.

And the magic comes easily.

(and after that...after that moment of truth is over and done, after that he has to keep control. he has to keep practicing because the peace he helped achieve can't be jeopardized just because he's too afraid of his own power.

and who knows if it could happen again - a kingdom ruled by a teenager with an under experienced royal wizard, still recovering from an evil dictatorship.

it's ripe for the picking, after all.)