Kenneth closes the door to his study behind us.

"I'm glad we've gotten that little formality out of the way, haha," Kenneth laughs awkwardly again. "Aren't you? Man, do I hate being the bad guy, but that's one of the few things I have to ask of you... aside from what your training requires, of course..."

Kenneth's voice slows. He gazes blankly for a moment, as if absorbed in thought... and then he smiles at me. "Speaking of your training, how would you like to practice a basic spell or two? You can read, right?"

"Of course I can read," I respond, slightly annoyed. I'm not a three-year-old, after all.

"Great! Follow me so I can get you a book."

Kenneth leads me across the house, beyond the door without a knob. We walk behind the bookshelf behind the podium, the same podium where Kenneth cast the void rift spell. There are mostly books on the following shelves. A wall clock painted with the sun and moon rests on its side behind some books.

Kenneth scans the shelves for a while. His brow narrows with confusion. "I need to re-organize these. Aha, found it!" He reaches up toward a higher shelf and pulls out a worn, brown book. He hands it to me.

It is much thinner than most of the tomes I have seen so far, but its weight is enough to make me feel giddy. This is where it all begins, isn't it? Will learning magic for the first time change how I perceive myself? I turn the book over to read the title:

"Elementary Telekinetics"

"This is an instructional book, if I remember correctly," Kenneth notes, "so it should go over the basics of spell mechanics and magic safety and the like. Just be sure to read it carefully starting from the first page, and don't skip anything."

I open the book and turn over the first few pages until I reach a page titled "Introduction."

"Ah, there's no need to strain yourself reading that book while standing. You can read it at the table in the living room. Come on, I insist!"

I feel Kenneth's hand push gently against my back. My sense of excitement fades into... awkwardness. The light pressure of his hand guides me around the bookshelves, past the handle-less metal door, through the kitchen, and leftward towards the table in the living room, where the same map lays unfolded as before. I feel the pressure of Kenneth's hand finally lift from my back. Kenneth walks forward and pushes the stack of papers to the other side of the table; then brushes aside the map, compass, and writing utensils. He pulls out a chair from the table.

Was it really necessary for Kenneth to lead me all the way to this desk? No, of course not. I am perfectly capable of seating myself.

"There, that should do it. I'd say sitting at a desk is a far more productive way to study, wouldn't you agree? Now, if you excuse me, I must go sit at my own desk, in my own private study. If you need something from me, remember to knock."

I nod, and watch Kenneth walk away with his hands clasped behind his back. His posture emanates a profound sense of purpose, restoring my awe for him once more. I watch him open the door and disappear behind it. The door thuds softly shut against the wood frame.

It is as if the moment Kenneth faded from my vision, he faded from existence as well. Whatever arcane texts he pores over are now a mystery to me, as long as they are separated by that forbidden door. Will there ever come a day when I too will pore over magical texts as arcane and obscure as his? Will there ever come a day when I too will stand at a podium, just like Kenneth did a few minutes ago, and spawn a void rift on a whim?

I really hope so.

I place my open textbook onto the table and sit down. My eyes land upon the first line:

Introduction

You are most likely reading this spellbook as one of your first instructional textbooks. If so, then it is with great honor that we, the authors of this spellbook, welcome you to the world of magic. As with all introductory magic books, we begin first with a brief history of magic.

No one knows who were the first humans to practice magic. Estimates of its origins range from 2000 Primordial to 1859 Diamond. The earliest evidence comes from stone tablets excavated from the Valley of the Celestial Craters, a region of badlands in Inner Minecraftia which is also where the first evidence of mining is found. The tablets, dated between 2000 Primordial and 300 Iron, record a ritual where animals and incense were burnt as tribute to a humanoid deity with the head of a boar. The systematic manner in which the ritual was prepared implied knowledge of the innate energies of different materials, and the incantations used closely resemble known fire spells. However, many mages have attempted to replicate these rituals yet have failed to evoke any magic spell. It is still disputed whether these rituals involved magic that is simply inaccessible to us.

Later archeological evidence of magic use comes from sites of iron automata, or 'golems,' unearthed in the Muse Forests, which border the Farlands on the eastern frontier. While the golems are now no more useful than hollow scrap metal, there is clear evidence of wear at their joints, and traces of life magic still emanate from within them. This residual magic has allowed mages to date their 'deaths' between 200 and 800 Iron. It is uncertain how these golems were created, as there is no known earth spell which can infuse life into a hollow metal body. One theory states that a now-forgotten strain of earth magic was developed to improve the quality of life for the people of the Muse Forests, which would later lead to the creation of the golems and the westward dissemination of magic. However, this contradicts some theories modeling the spread of magic; these theories suggest that the adoption of magic in distant regions occurred too soon for the knowledge of "Musite" magic to reach them. It is also uncertain whether humans were responsible for creating the golems in the first place, given the fact that the technology used to create them never spread westward.

As these two pieces of historical evidence illustrate, the origins of the human practice of magic are shrouded in mystery. Signs of human magic use have been dated widely throughout the Age of Iron, although they are as heavily disputed by scholars as the religious rituals and Musite golems which came before them. However, taken as a body of evidence, it is almost certain that humans practiced magic at some point during the Age of Iron. It is also widely believed that the first mages, whenever they lived, practiced magic in secret, since magic had been condemned by society as demon worship up until near the end of the Age of Iron.

A recorded event which puts a decisive upper bound on the discovery of magic appears in the book "The Intelligent Nature of Wind and Tempests" written by Heidi Marcson in 1859 Diamond. The book is still studied by wind mages to this day. It is prefaced with a record of Marcson's meeting in the royal court of King Gino I, where Marcson first recounted her discoveries of how summon and control the wind. The preface of the book ends with the king's signature, and the original copy contains Gino's seal of approval, a symbol of the Minecraftian government's acceptance of Marcson's findings as valid academic research, and furthermore, an acceptance of magic by members of the aristocracy.

King Gino's endorsement would prove to be a boon for the study of magic, which would spread greatly throughout the Age of Diamond. Only two decades after Heidi Marcson published her book on wind magic, Maccoy Rexerthos published his famous work "Organization and Methods for the Study of Magic." You may already be familiar with Rexerthos' classification of magic into four primary elements: Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. Rexerthos is considered a pioneer in the institutionalization of magic. Many of the major schools of magic would form based on the educational system which he developed, each assigned its own pantheon of patron deities based on Rexerthos' elemental classification. You may recognize some of the the common deities associated with earth magic: Stephine, Herobrine, Garrus, and Mallus. There are patron deities associated with the schools of Fire, Water, and Air magic as well, in addition to a few more specialized schools, such as the school of Life magic. As you will discover in more advanced spellbooks, some elemental spells must call upon the name of one or more of their respective patron gods. Rexerthos' choices for primary elements and patron gods were no coincidence; his works synthesized from the body of knowledge and belief systems which existed at that time. Many of those belief systems have persisted to this day.

As we have mentioned, Maccoy Rexerthos was responsible for developing an elemental theory of magic. This theory, at its core, divides magic into four basic elements, and states that all forms of magic are combinations of those four elements. However, as with any theory, Rexerthos' elemental theory is limited, and thus other theories began to develop throughout the Age of Diamond.

One such theory is the Theory of Inverse Suppression, proposed by the Council of the School of Earth Magic in 2554 Diamond. This theory instead classifies magic along a continuum of characteristics, such as the origin and the density of the material manipulated. The basis of the theory is that the farther away two forms of magic are on the continuum, the less compatible they are. The theory is particularly well-suited to explain why a mage cannot practice two seemingly opposite forms of magic, such as Fire magic and Water magic.

Another alternative theory is the Object-Agent Theory, developed in 3518 Diamond by Hal Shadesmith and Emelon Neildon. It draws some inspiration from the way that magicians used to think about magic before it became heavily institutionalized, such as the work of earlier well-known scholars like Heidi Marcson. The earlier way of thinking about magic associated levels of soul-like consciousness to all things; from people, to animals, to manmade tools, to forces of nature. This idea of magic was criticized as mysticism, and rightfully so as the system was weighed down with religious bias. However, there was some truth to the system, as it could predict how the effect of a spell cast on a human could differ from the effect of the same spell cast on an animal. The idea as refined by Shadesmith and Neildon states that the effect of a spell is determined by a combination of intelligence and magic susceptibility, due to the fact that a spell conveys both information and energy. Much of this textbook draws from this theory, as you will see in the first chapter.

I lift my head from the final line of the page and take a deep breath. That was definitely not like the textbooks my teacher makes me read at school. Those were dull by comparison. It reminds me of my parent's books; the sentences are longer and far more interesting, although there are some words in it that I could not understand, like "implied" and "theory." Maybe I can ask Kenneth what they mean...

I draw my eyes to the left, to the closed door on the other side of the living room.

I would ask him, but he said he did not want to be disturbed in his study. But surely Kenneth would make an exception for the sake of my studies?

I stand up from my chair and walk to the door.

I remember now. Kenneth said it was fine if I knock first.

I rap my knuckles against the door.

"Just a minute..." I hear Kenneth's muffled voice from the inside.

The door opens with Kenneth's brown eyes peeking out.

"What do you want?" he asks in a slightly annoyed, monotone voice.

"What do 'implied' and 'theory' mean?"

"'Implied' means 'logically connected to something.' A 'theory' is an idea that is good at explaining things." Kenneth partially closes the door, leaving only half of his face visible. "Anything else?"

"I think I understand what they mean a little better..." Maybe they would make sense better in context. "Hold on, let me get the textbook."