"Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, merely changed."
Angela had been teaching lessons for a few days now, many of her lessons were actually close to the physics and science lessons Damien had learned in school, though tweaked with the inclusion of magic.
"From your memories I gleaned that Oromis had taught Eragon about how it was easier to manipulate natural forces than to generate his own. That one could connect to living things and draw power from them. And that, advancing that thread it is possible to funnel natural forces in a more efficient way without expending too much of yours or another living being's magic, merely by using another source or sources as a catalyst."
She stood up and pointed at the campfire.
"Brisingr, vindr, adurna"
After a few seconds, the flames flared out into a huge conflagration, ultimately burning out in a few seconds, but not before nearly blinding everyone around and leaving the area feeling hot. Solembum moved beyond the location and sat at a cooler area, yawning to take a midmorning nap, and Elva remained quiet as she doodled on the ground.
"The fire is already there, the fuel is already there, all I did was increase the speed in which the flames consumed their fuel, this in turn meant the fire burned faster, brighter, and deadlier. Hmm a lot of -er's in that one." Angela turned in to herself. "Though I was always more a fan of -ings as opposed to er's, people shouldn't be concerned with comparisons, only that they are in action..." She continued this rambling for a bit on before turning to Faris, who by then was looking at the remains of the fire, blackened bits of ash that barely held the shape of logs and sticks.
"You mentioned Brisingr, vindr, and adurna, fire, wind or air, and water respectively, that doesn't explain exactly what you did but…" Faris thinks to himself. "Wait I got it! You fueled more of the flames, directed more oxygen to fuel the flames, and directed water faster out of the wood to make it all the drier and easier to burn! Right?" He waited expectantly and Angela's smiling face elated him at first, only to turn suspicious as he noticed the way her grin formed on her mouth.
"My voice isn't that funny!" He shouted.
"No, no that's not why I'm smiling, I'm just happy you were able to grasp it so quickly, I did try to explain it in a similar format of how your teachers back from your land would have taught those around your age, well, your real age not your current physical age." Angela sits back down. "I was only using that as an example, when it comes to it, your effectiveness as a magic user comes to your creativity and…" She quieted down a bit. "Your power."
Faris noted the change in tone, seeing that even Solembum looked slightly uneasy, and Elva, who had stopped doodling and was actually looking away.
"What's wrong?" He asked. "Is it me?"
Angela cleared her throat. "well you see, I know I told your parents you had talent in magic, and you have high magical skill, very high magical skill, especially since you are so young and have already learned to project your mind you have easy access to your magical reserves. This coupled with your knowledge of the ancient language and aptitude for creativity and thorough understanding of basic laws of nature as well as implicit understanding of the more esoteric ones means you would be a very powerful spell caster indeed, but you are still a child, a human child at that, you don't have the raw energy to cast any spells without them killing you, no matter how small, humans as a species have very little raw energy in comparison to the other races, even dwarves and urgals have more raw power, as you know its based off of stamina, and baby's have little if any stamina, all I can do is teach you words, concepts, and ideas about how to use magic, but you must not under any circumstance attempt to cast a spell until you reach your fourth year."
Faris sat aback slightly. "How do I have high magical skill then? That means I can tap into magic quickly and easily, how can I tap into it quickly, but I don't have the energy to use it?"
Angela placed a clean index finger on her forehead. "Everyone has a different aptitude, normally yes, humans have it harder than the other races of Alagesia, but just like raw power to some extent, it can be trained and increased, as well as magically influenced."
She sticks up three fingers, wiggling each of them in front of Faris's young face.
"I posit three theories though for the extreme usage: one; when whatever caused you to be reborn into this world and allowed you to keep your memories also by byproduct or by purpose allowed you to gain this aptitude beyond your stature. Two; when your mother was carrying you she had trouble, I gave her many potions and tinctures and medicines to help the birth through, and perhaps they had an effect on you before you were born, this is the least likely to me."
She stops speaking for a bit.
"Well?" Faris begins, "what is the third reason? Don't leave me in the dark!"
"Well, this may just be conjecture, but perhaps because your physical body is so young, yet your mind is so advanced, based on what I've learned from your memories, and if most of the biological rules from your world apply here, which I believe they do, then perhaps your mind is just structured a bit more advanced than the average human, a child your size would normally be leagues behind in the mental development department, you are already capable of speech, and the only thing holding you back before was physical development. You have the special privilege of a young mind capable of rapidly imprinting and learning new things, while being able to comprehend them intrinsically with an adult's reasoning, it would technically take me months to a few years to thoroughly teach a child your age the Urgal language, but since you also have the intelligence and experience necessary to focus and develop that knowledge and memorization, its easier to awaken and utilize every part of your mind."
"So because children can learn things quickly when they can comprehend them, and I have the intelligence and experience to already comprehend a lot of things, I somehow 'trained' my mind to this level?" Faris thought to himself.
"Okay, I can't cast spells then, I understand, so, what now?"
Angela smiled. "Well, we have about 3 weeks of travel for me to teach you something, what do you wish to learn."
Faris thought to himself, there were a plethora of things he wanted to learn, thousands of tiny tidbits he wished to learn about Alagesia, though right now two things popped up in his head.
"Can you teach me the Urgal and Dwarf languages?"