CHAPTER 9

Ruto and Kaito were on the beach with the waves.The two stood side by side.

Ruto began, "For magic users you need to connect with the source of the magic with your mind. For natural magic users it's in our core, for you it's that rock you got from King Seaton. Relax and feel the energy coming from your stone. Feel its energy and use that energy to feel the water around you from the humidity in the air to the water at our ankles. Feel it with the connection from your mind and the stone. Don't worry if you don't get it right away this is a new experience for you so don't be surprised if it takes several minutes or even hours, it will feel different than the feeling of water on your skin so when you feel it, see if you can pull the water towards you. Clear your mind and concentrate on connecting with the stone."

Kaito took deep slow breaths as he cleared his mind trying to concentrate. He was glad Ruto had said it could take a while because it did take him nearly an hour. Eventually the stone began to glow. He understood the feeling she was talking about. "I can feel it, I'm not sure I know what you mean by pulling the water towards me."

"I can tell you feel the connection with your stone, try to use the stone like an eye to see and feel the water around you. Try to make a small water ball the size of your fist. It will be easier to draw the water from the ocean than the humidity, but don't shy away from trying to draw it from the air if you can feel it.

Kaito took another deep breath and tried to figure out what seeing out the stone meant. It didn't take much longer, maybe 10 minutes, but he saw the water, he didn't know why but he instinctively drew open his hand and managed to form a small ball of water just above his fist.

Ruto then spoke, "Well it's only a little bigger than a marble but you did it, try not to lose concentration, open your eyes and look"

He opened his eyes and was shocked to see the water he imagined in his mind was in fact, hovering over the palm of his hand. "That's me?" He said in disbelief, "I'm really doing this?"

Ruto nodded, "Try breaking concentration with the stone to release the water from your palm. It's a little harder to break the connection than it sounds, but it shouldn't take you nearly as long. Try not to break it in a way that causes the water to splash ever…"

Before she could finish her sentence, water splashed them both from Kaitos hand. "Er… sorry" he said while rubbing the back of his head.

"It's okay, it's your first time, but releasing the water ball in a way that doesn't cause an explosion of water everywhere is essential to controlling the magic. If you aren't in full control, you aren't prepared to learn more complicated spells." Ruto said.

"That makes sense." Kaito replied.

"Try again, now that you know what the connection feels like, it shouldn't take as long to replicate the water ball. You still might need a few minutes, but each time it will get easier and you will be able to make it faster, just make it and dissipate properly and once you have full control we can work on the next step." Ruto said.

Kaito closed his eyes and focused again. Since he knew what the feeling he was looking for felt like it only took him a couple of minutes and he formed the water ball again. He then focused on letting it go again. It took a few tries, but he finally managed to finally properly dissipate the water without a splash explosion.

"You're doing good for someone who isn't a natural magic user, let's see if you can get you able to do this quickly by the end of the day. Something like this" Ruto then held her hand and formed a water ball and dissipated it in about five seconds.

Kaito sighed but nodded. This was taking more mental energy than he realized, but he signed up for this and it was getting easier. "How long did it take you to do this?" he asked.

"I learned how to move water around and form water where I wanted to right away, the controlling part was the hard part. Of course at the time I didn't know I was a sage, just that my magic was strong, and I learned quickly that it was going to need practice controlling it if it wasn't going to be destructive." Ruto answered.

"Hmm I guess that makes sense," Kaito said pensively. He then went back to trying to form the water ball. Towards the end of the day he was able to do it quickly without much effort.

"Excellent tomorrow, we'll work on the most important spell in your training. I don't know if it has an official name, but I call it ear bubbles. For now though, I want to head back and spend time with our kids." Ruto said as she jumped back up onto Kaitos shoulders.

"What do ear bubbles do?" Kaito asked.

"It's a spell that breaks up the mermaid's siren song, by breaking it up, you don't fall under its spell. There are a few different ways to break their songs, but this is the easiest to do, and hardest for them to stop. Mostly because it's a spell you do to yourself, even if they are capable of deflecting magic, you can't deflect magic done to the magic user's self, you have to perform a counter spell, which is a different mechanic, entirely."

"If you say so" Kaito said, "I don't think I quite understand what you mean"

"That's okay, you will soon," Ruto replied.

The next day was a little easier, he actually got the bubble spell down quickly, but that wasn't the hard part, the hard part was concentrating on the spell while concentrating on fighting. Ruto was having him deflect water attacks with his spear while holding the spell in place. They weren't anything serious in terms of attacks but trying to do two things at once was challenging. That trick took a couple of days to get down effectively.

Day five of their training and they received a message back from the two guards they sent to King Seaton. Seaton had agreed to keep a close eye on queen Ara and a close watch on river zora military.

The news of the royal hatchlings and the mermaid battle was posted in the central part of town which also drew a crowd to watch King Kaito train. It was a little counterproductive since it led to a distracting silly joke from time to time being overheard.

Jokes such as, "Oof that was a rough attack from the queen, Kaito must not be doing his part to help with the kids."

Ruto insisted it was actually for the best, "There are a lot of distractions on the battlefield, you will still need to hear what's going on while casting magic. You still need to hear the songs, when they are broken up by the bubbles, otherwise you can't hear where they are coming from if the mermaids are hiding, or what they say when they talk to each other. Often mermaids assume that you block out all sound when you aren't falling for their song. Knowing how to cast the spell while hearing conversation was actually useful in battle", she insisted.

By the end of the week Kaito found himself able to do basic water attacks as well as holding the bubbles in his ears.

The final trick Ruto taught Kaito was under the ocean fields, pulling water away from your opponents gills.

"It's a secondary method of interrupting their song." She explained. "On the off chance they know you are using ear bubbles and counter it you can interpret their song by stopping their breathing."

It was ten days into their training. Ruto had him trained to her satisfaction a little sooner than expected simply because Kaito was already very good at dodging and deflecting magic attacks. Some of her strongest attacks were being countered readily, without him at any point breaking focus on her movements or his ear bubbles. She knew he was ready.

So they headed out to Seaton and Mazus kingdom. Seaton had already headed for the river zora and wasn't back yet. Prince Conway came back injured, but had since been healed and was heading back out.

"We've been keeping some of our best healers behind." Conway explained as he led them and a group of other soldiers back to the front lines, "The Mermaids are tougher than we expected. Somehow these guys know some pretty advanced magic for mermaids. Don't let your guard down."

"How many are there?" Ruto asked

"Thousands, but they seem to have some kind of mutation, they know more than sirens songs, including some dark magic, as long as you keep an eye on them and deflect properly you'll be fine, but it's easy to get overconfident, I did and that's why I got sent back. I was knocked down pretty bad. Even had some broken bones." Conway explained.