An Owl's Rise

Completely exhausted from the training Melisandre had just put her through, all Evelyn could do was nod her head ever so slightly and let out an exhausted grunt.

"Since you worked so hard and showed me something interesting, I will take you back to your room." Melisandre said as she picked up Evelyn effortlessly.

Sometimes Evelyn still found it surprising to see how physically strong Melisandre seemed even though her humanoid form was far smaller than she was now.

Soon enough Melisandre had carried her all the way to her room and placed her a top the tree branch growing in there where she was able to rest.

"Now get some rest and take it easy tomorrow. You have been trying to move at full speed ahead, and while your progress has been exceptional it could lead you to ruin if you do not slow down. Just know that you have plenty of time, so simply go at a steady pace and slowly advance yourself. No one climbs the ranks in a single day and to really get stronger takes long term dedication, not just immense bursts of progress."

Once Melisandre had given this last piece of wisdom, she left Evelyn to herself, and she quickly drifted off to sleep.

The following weeks Evelyn decided to take Melisandre up on her advice and take things slower.

She had been rushing herself to get stronger for a while now, but she had hit a wall that could not be overcome by simply forcing herself forward, and now she needed to take some time and develop her skills.

Her days became far more routine as she would sell her creations in the alchemy hall around four or five days a week, and then after that practice her control over magic.

Then one of the other two days she would either receive lessons on alchemy from Melisandre or simply practice her control more and more.

Some days Melisandre would send her out on more missions, primally to the glowing woods she was already familiar with to obtain more and sometimes new ingredients she needed for alchemy.

During this time, she also replaced her now broken storage amulets with two rings that had smaller capacities and one very expensive cuff that had a capacity that was as large as three of her previous amulets.

All of these items had cost her several hundred thousand credits, but her alchemy shop was doing pretty good business, and over a few months she had more than made up the cost of buying the storage magic tools.

Currently she was heavily embroiled in training her magical energy while also familiarizing herself with the magical affinities she had come to possess.

By way of her bloodline from her parents she had the fairly common power over wind, the crimson heavenly flame had given her the power of fire, and the Aethersphere, a divine item she still had little clue about had given her the extraordinary power over gravity.

In order for her to take the next step, she not only needed catalysts to bring about her evolution, but also a sufficient understanding over her magical powers.

'What is wind, fire, and gravity?' Evelyn thought coming back to the question she had been contemplating for a while now.

She certainly knew plenty about the first two from her time in school back on Earth, and at least a bit about gravity as well. But this world was far different than her last one.

In her previous life there was science, but in this one there is magic. Yet the more she looked at the magic in this world the more she understood that it did follow rules just like science.

However, they were certainly still different, and what rules governed magic she was not quite sure about yet.

Nevertheless, Melisandre had also told her that one's own understanding of magic was often different from another's and that what mattered most was how confident one was in their understanding.

First, she focused on wind the element she had been able to use for the longest and was naturally apart of her.

She was able to use her magical energy to create gusts of wind and after a great deal of practice blades, but there was much more that should be possible.

She had seen all the amazing ways that Melisandre was able to manipulate both fire and water, which were far beyond what she could do.

Then there was the human that had defeated her parents.

His magic was far from as polished as Melisandre's and he had to use indications to activate his spells, but he was able to create phenomena that were beyond just basic manipulation of an element.

'I know that in extreme cases wind can create tornados and hurricanes, but it can also be gentle and refreshing.'

For dozens of minutes Evelyn contemplated this and about what wind meant to her and how to use it before moving onto fire.

'Fire can burn hot and turn everything to ash. It is undoubtedly the strongest weapon I currently have. But that is not all it can do. I have used it for cooking, illumination, and warmth. When not used for destruction, it has great potential for helping to keep things alive. If I think about it that way in its most extreme form, it is like a star. From the correct distance it brings warmth, life, and light. But too close and it incinerates everything.'

When she was finished with fire she moved onto gravity, but this was something she was far less familiar with.

She knew that it was what kept things from simply floating around and that it was somehow tied to mass and weight, but and that the greater something's mass the more gravity it was supposed to have.

But somehow her Aethersphere was able to alter the gravity in a specific area around her or even set up traps. All without altering anything's mass.

This was an effect that Evelyn simply could not comprehend in a normal scientifical way and for now could only chalked it up to being magic.

Eventually she moved on from this line of thinking as she was not getting anywhere and moved on to magical energy as a whole.

It was a sort of ambient power that permeated the air in this world and that living beings could store inside themselves.

Evelyn for her part was a real anomaly with two cores that were able to store this energy giving her even more than normal.

Along with them though she developed magical affinities which were influenced by her lineage and the outside powers she had absorbed.

'But how do I control this power within me. I can use it to cause fire to burst out or shot out gusts of wind. Or even change the gravity around me. Yet I still cannot fully control it. Melisandre said that if I kept practicing one day it would all just click, but there must be some way to figure it out.'

Digging deep and feeling towards her beast core Evelyn tried once more to draw out her pure magical energy, but with no success.

All she did was create a gust of wind and when she tired using her magic core instead she just caused a puff of fire.

In both cases it was a completely underwhelming affect for how determined Evelyn was.

Her two cores had already long since adopted the magical affinities within her body, making it harder for her to draw out an manipulate the pure magical energy.

Eventually she started to become more desperate and began doing things like balancing on one foot or resting her entire weight on her head.

Of course, none of these positions helped her in anyway and she just looked silly.

'I am exhausted again.' Evelyn thought after she had fruitlessly tried numerous positions in hope of reaching some sort of enlightenment.

With another day not making much progress, she sighed and headed back to her room after having spent the whole day training.

When she arrived, she flew back up to her normal perch and settled into to go to sleep.

Except as she was in the area of her consciousness waning and her mind was still thinking of ways to allow her to control her magical energy, she had an idea far more promising than any she had thought of before.

'This just might work.'