freeZe was walking down a corridor she had never seen before, she was on her way to her first magic lesson. She had dressed appropriately, wearing the blue and black robe she had picked up from the skeletal mage. Next to her walked Shadow, as per usual dressed in her own black robe.

freeZe asked: "Where exactly are we going?"

Shadow replied: "To my summoning chamber. Fire is training the others in the other room, it's the next best thing we have, it is extensively shielded against stray magic." She then asked: "By the way, where did you get this robe? It seems familiar."

"I got it off the skeletal mage in the Graveyard of the Forest that wounded Fire."

"Oh, so that is what became of poor Ganur. He was one of my students when I worked at the University of Magic in Rockhaven. Always wanted to meet Oalrhm… it seems like they got off on the wrong foot."

freeZe wondered: "What's with all of those names? Aurone, Runa, Andras, Ganur… are those traditional names here?"

"Yes, in a way. People born here, so NPCs, are named by their parents. Players often choose an alias for themselves that fits in, real world names or shortened ingame names aren't unusual either though. Here on the server we also follow the principle of earning your second name, which is where Andras Thornhook got his second name, he is an excellent artefact hunter but as you might expect, that is not without dangers. After losing his right hand he installed a hook in its place, it didn't hinder him in the slightest, some even say that he got better after the incident."

Just after Shadow had finished talking they had arrived at the door to the summoning chamber. Shadow signaled freeZe to go in first. After hesitating she pushed open the pitch black wooden door. freeZe had expected the smell of incense to hit her but instead there was nothing, no smell, no sound, only the dim light of candles. After her eyes had adjusted to the darkness she could see that there was already someone standing in the room… it was Shadow. freeZe quickly turned around to see if she had teleported into the room but no, there were two Shadows.

"What the hell?" freeZe asked.

The Shadow standing in the room just smiled, the other one walked past freeZe and stood next to the first one.

In unison they said: "Projections, freeZe."

After that the Shadow that had accompanied freeZe vanished without a trace.

freeZe was fascinated: "Wow, will I learn how to do that too?"

"Probably not." Shadow answered bluntly.

freeZe stared at her for a couple of seconds, then Shadow added: "That is because your magical elements aren't the ones needed to create projections. Fire said that he gave you a brief rundown of how the magical elements work but that was just a very superficial overview. Make yourself comfortable."

With those words Shadow sat down on the carpet. freeZe closed the door behind herself and then sat down. The carpet was quite soft and very nice to sit on. She was sitting on the opposite side of the summoning circle that was illuminated by the candles, everything else around her was black and the only thing she could properly see of Shadow were her white hair and her red, glowing eyes.

Shadow began: "Fire probably told you about the seven elements, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Life, Ender and Wither. They are all 'flavors' of the same magical energy. While Fire and Air magic do pretty much what you would expect them to, Water and Earth magic don't. Their names can be quite deceptive to be honest, whoever named them didn't think too much about more descriptive names and just went with the four elements theme. Now, Water magic and Earth magic are quite similar, they are both used to change the properties of things. While Water magic is more focused on the environment, Earth magic focuses on the caster. Ender magic applies the laws of physics according to the caster's will, so an Ender mage is capable of, for example, making things float or animating golems. Summoning demons or teleporting is also in the domain of Ender magic. Life and Wither are exact opposites and counteract each other. While Life is used to heal, Wither is used to harm or perform necromancy. Earth and Water can be used to heal as well but those types of healing often require more concentration. Technically Ender magic can do everything the other elements can do as well, although it is much more difficult to the point of being impractical."

freeZe asked: "What about Void?"

"Right, Void. In practice Void is more or less irrelevant. It is to Ender what Wither is to Life, an opposing force. The only difference here is that because of its very nature unbound Void energy it destroys anything it comes in contact with. It is hard to even create Void magic since it is just neutralized upon coming into existence and even if a large amount of Void magic was created, it is impossible to control except in very specific circumstances. If you wander around for a while you may notice large, perfectly spherical holes in the landscape, which is what happens when Void magic is created and not controlled."

"Alright, I get it. Void. Don't touch that."

"Exactly. Now to you."

freeZe was a bit surprised by suddenly being in the focus, she asked: "What?"

Shadow said: "As far as Fire has told me you have large quantities of life force at your disposal, the energy from the Blaze Core confirmed this. That and the magical pulse I felt a day before your arrival, I assume that that was you evaporating that slime."

freeZe awkwardly looked away from Shadow, she remembered her total loss of control and absolute helplessness after her life force had taken control.

"From what I have heard your main elements seem to be Fire and Air. While your combination is phenomenal in combat. Outside of it, it can become somewhat of a burden. Both of those elements tend to be quite unstable and their users tend to use them, mostly involuntarily, when affected by strong emotions, especially the Fire element is prone to this. Some people don't like us mages in general but for pyromancers this is doubly so. Let me give you an example, there is a joke…"

freeZe interrupted: "Seriously, there are jokes about pyromancers?"

Shadow laughed. "Oh, you would be surprised how many mage, alchemist or enchanter jokes there are, people tend to ridicule things they can't understand and trust me, jokes aren't where it stops. However there aren't any Mencur-Besh jokes I am aware of… strange, isn't it? Anyways the joke goes like this: 'A recently married pyromancer couple rents a room in a tavern for a night, how does the room look the day after?' The correct reply would be: 'What room in what tavern?' You get the gist. I just want you to be aware of this beforehand so that you can actually keep your magic in check before you accidentally turn your brother into charcoal. Fortunately people aren't this hostile to mages everywhere, it's mostly outside of big cities, it's a bad idea to offend the people you need."

freeZe was caught between smiling at the joke and thinking about what might happen to her, she asked: "Why is that?"

"In the beginning of your training you will work on fusing your consciousness with your life force, that way you gain control over your magic instead of it being something that awakens in certain situations. Of course, this will affect you in some way, for some it is a radical change of personality and for some others it is barely noticeable. In general though, Fire is still the most unstable element and is the most prone to accidental use, Air follows right after. I hope you are ready for that."

freeZe thought for a moment, then said: "Yes, I am ready. Probably. It is better than having my life force just sitting there having its own will."

Shadow rose up in one fluent movement, she said: "Let's start then."

freeZe stood up as well. Shadow reached into a pocked of her robes and pulled out a small flask with a bright blue liquid in it, she handed it to freeZe.

"This potion will forcibly put your life force into control. Drink it. When you feel yourself losing control, try to fight it with all of your willpower, try to get back into control and command your magic yourself. Don't worry about me or this room, everything in the room is protected and I will be able to defend myself against anything your life force may throw at me."

All of a sudden freeZe wasn't so sure if she was in fact ready, her hands were shaking as she uncorked the flask. Before finally bringing herself to drink the blue liquid she took a deep breath. As it ran down her throat she wasn't exactly able to identify what it felt like, it wasn't cold or hot, it was a sensation unknown to her. Suddenly freeZe felt herself losing control over her limbs and then finally over the rest of her body, she felt like she would fall over but she stood perfectly still. No feeling got through to her anymore, she could only see like through the eyes of a stranger. Then she felt something, a very distant feeling, it was exactly what she had felt in the Graveyard or in the swamp. She tried to suppress it but her efforts had no effect. She saw her right arm rise up but she couldn't feel it. The flask dropped from her grasp, its impact muffled by the carpet. She saw how her head turned around to inspect the surroundings, then she heard her own voice, it was distorted and it seemed like the one speaking only barely knew the words.

It said: "What… this?"

She saw how her hands were now being moved more aggressively, pointing towards Shadow whose facial expression hadn't changed in the slightest. Small sparks started flying from her palms, rising up into the air. She suddenly felt how energy started flowing through her. She clung to this feeling, trying to control the flow, still to no avail. The sparks quickly became small flames, when they had grown a little bigger, she saw her palms being pointed at Shadow. A jet of flame shot from them, however it seemed to be distorted by something just before it reached Shadow, bending the flames around her.

freeZe heard Shadow calmly say: "Come on, fight it."

The flames got stronger, so did the energy flow. freeZe still felt absolutely powerless. Suddenly the flames stopped, her hands were now at her sides. Just as freeZe was about to wonder what was happening a deafening explosion originated from her body, only that it wasn't deafening to her, it was more of a muffled bang. freeZe was in the center of an ongoing nova of red flames, she couldn't see any of the room.

It was now five minutes after she had drank the potion, she was starting to panic, even when she killed the skeletal mage it had been over sooner. She needed to do something, anything.

It was easier said than done, she felt like she was an insect encased in amber, no room for movement and no weak point that could be used as leverage. The flames still seemed to have no end, they had changed from red to bright white. All of a sudden freeZe felt how the energy flow broke in for a moment, a crack in the amber prison that was her own mind, her life force was getting weaker.

freeZe used this gap, she mentally clawed her nails into it to enlarge it, she could feel the feeling in her skin returning, her hearing getting clearer. She thought back to when she held the Blaze Core, now she did the exact same thing to limit the energy flow. The flames started turning red again and became less dense and continued to lose energy. Just before they were gone completely, freeZe suddenly snapped back into control. She felt an intense heat upon her skin and closed her eyes to protect them from the flames that were still coming from her body. The heat started turning into pain, just when she thought that it became unbearable, the flames stopped. The pain remained.

When she opened her eyes she was lying on the soft carpet, Shadow was leaning over her with a smile on her face.

"You did it." She said.

freeZe sat up, then she noticed that she had burns all over her skin, not as bad ones as the ones she had gotten in the swamp but they still hurt like hell. Her hair also hadn't taken kindly to the flames. At least her robe had remained completely undamaged. With each moment the pain subsided more.

With a raspy voice freeZe said: "Normally it doesn't stop hurting that quickly."

Shadow explained: "Now that you have established a connection to your life force, your body will heal much more quickly than normally. If you want I can heal you completely so that you don't keep scars."

freeZe thought for a moment, then replied: "No, I don't mind the scars. They will remind me of this struggle. I also think I'll also be burned more often."

Shadow looked at freeZe, then she started laughing: "Now, you aren't the first to say that. You are already starting to think like a pyromancer."