>>5807235"Where is Eligius?" You asked her.
"In Tarren Mill with our spies. He won't be joining us today." Nalice said and put the quill away. "Part of the training, I sent him there to potentially find someone willing to send information to us."
It felt bad to spy on your closest neighbour and ally, but… Eligius needs this training as does the spies.
"Hmmm… hoping that everything goes well." You said to her. "Lady Nalice, what are we going to study today then? Continue with the theory?"
"No, we will spend this time concentrating and focusing on the mana inside you. This will take time, so better for us to get started immediately." Nalice said and stood up from behind her desk. "Take off your clothes and get inside the circle, I have everything prepared."
The tone of her voice was impatient, but rather eager sounding. You had a hunch that she was going to test you somehow today.
As you took off everything except the braies, Nalice prodded you with her fingers and traced them over the blue sigils painted on your skin. Her touch was warm and to your surprise where she touched, it felt like it amplified the effect of the sigils. They felt more powerful than before, like if someone was prodding your skin with a hot metal while the tingling spread on your skin. Yet it didn't burn you, but it did get the mana she had given to you churn and cascade hard inside you. The scorching whirlwind spread everywhere from your toes to the top of your head.
This forced you to take a couple of deep breaths. You had gotten used to the feeling inside you and it didn't require that much concentration to keep it in check, but now it was actually somewhat difficult.
"Good, today your task is to calm the mana inside you, while lighting up this candle." Nalice said and placed a small pedestal in front of you. The candle on it seemed rather ordinary. "You must concentrate on both at the same time for added difficulty."
You went to grab the candle, but Nalice swatted your hand away.
"You will light the candle while not touching it." Nalice said. "You have read the theory, you know what you must do."
Nalice was right, you know what you must do. All you had to do was to concentrate the inherent nature of the fire contained in the surrounding area into one location, which was the candle. You need to wrestle the mana inside you into control and then will the fire into a reality.
Everything you had studied till this point led to this. You are going to get that candle lit up or end up exhausted like there is no tomorrow.
You will succeed!
>3d10, Best of four>DC 15, 20, Crit 25QM: I am planning on writing another update later today.
