Professor Blackwood closed her eyes, and I watched as she took a deep breath. The air around her hands began to shimmer with heat.
“Observe,” she said, her voice calm and controlled. “I’m thinking about something that provokes strong emotion. Anger, in this case.”
The flames erupted from her palms, wild and chaotic, shooting toward the ceiling before she contained them in a tight sphere between her hands.
“Now watch what happens when I channel that emotion properly.”
The ball of fire began to transform, reshaping itself into a perfect miniature replica of the Elemental Arts building, each tiny window and doorway rendered in flickering flame.
“Control doesn’t mean suppression, Mr. Vale. It means direction.” She extinguished the flames with another breath.“Your shadow magic works similarly, but with greater connection to your emotional state.”
I stared at my hands, trying to imagine my shadows responding with such precision.
“So, you’re saying I should... use my feelings about Silver to fuel my magic?” I asked hesitantly.
Professor Blackwood’s lips twitched again. “I’m saying you should acknowledge those feelings rather than pretending they don’t affect your magic. Then learn to direct them.”
“But how do I apply that to cleaning toilets?” I couldn’t keep the skepticism from my voice.
“Shadow magic excels at banishing what doesn’t belong,” she explained, returning to her desk. “Dirt, grime, impurities—these are all foreign elements that have no place in the clean environment you are trying to create. Your shadows can identify and extract them without damaging the underlying structure, if you train them properly.”
She picked up a small stone paperweight from her desk and held it out to me. “Here. This stone has microscopic impurities within it. Use your shadows to extract them without breaking the stone.”
I took the paperweight, feeling its cool weight in my palm. It looked like ordinary gray granite.
“I’ve never done anything like that before,” I admitted.
“That’s why it’s calledlearning, Mr. Vale.” There was that hint of amusement again. “Focus on what doesn’t belong. Your shadows know the difference, even if you don’t consciously recognize it.”
I closed my eyes, feeling for the darkness that always lingered at the edges of my awareness. The shadows responded eagerly, curling around my fingers like affectionate cats.
“Good,” Professor Blackwood murmured. “Now look deeper. See beyond the surface.”
I concentrated harder, extending my awareness into the stone itself. At first, I sensed nothing unusual, but then… something. Tiny flecks of something different, something that didn’t match the stone’s natural composition. Foreign elements.
My shadows thinned, becoming more like tendrils than clouds. They slipped into the microscopic spaces between particles, seeking out the impurities I’d sensed.
“Pull them out,” Professor Blackwood instructed softly. “Gently.”
I coaxed the shadows to grasp the impurities with my magic. I imagined them like tiny specks of dust caught in a web, being carefully extracted without disturbing the surrounding material. To my amazement, small dark particles began to rise from the stone, suspended in my shadow tendrils.
“I’m doing it,” I whispered, barely able to believe what I was seeing.
“Excellent control,” Professor Blackwood said, her voice tinged with genuine approval. “Now banish them.”
I directed the shadow tendrils toward the wastebasket beside her desk, releasing the impurities there. They fell like black sand, disappearing into the shadows at the bottom of the bin.
“That was...” I stared at my hands in wonder. “I didn’t know I could do that.”
“There’s a great deal you don’t yet know about your abilities, Mr. Vale.” Professor Blackwood took the paperweight back, examining it with a satisfied nod. “This is precisely the kind of precision you need to apply to your cleaning duties. Extract what doesn’t belong without damaging what does.”
“And this will help me fix the toilet I broke?” I asked hopefully.
She gave me a look that was halfway between amusement and exasperation. “That particular problem might require moreconventional repair methods. But going forward, yes, this approach should prevent further... incidents.”
I clutched the black book she’d given me, feeling a strange kinship with it already. “I’ll study this tonight.”
“See that you do.” She returned to her seat, her expression becoming more serious. “Now, there’s another matter I wanted to discuss with you. Your magic has been growing stronger, hasn’t it? Even when you’re not actively using it?”
