An Owl's Rise

Nodding along, Evelyn was excited enough to pretty much not care about anything else, and even suggested that she simply work at learning to control her magical energy every day until she had it down.

"I am glad you are enthusiastic but there is no need to work yourself that hard. If you force yourself to exhaustion like you did yesterday, you are more likely to make a mistake and hurt yourself. Even the four days a week is an intense training schedule to begin with." Melisandre said, trying to keep Evelyn in check.

She had a habit of going all out whenever she learned something new that could make her stronger, and often it ended with her ending up unconscious from overwork as what happened yesterday.

Accepting Melisandre's advice, Evelyn calmed down and thought back to her most recent collapse.

'I want to get right to it and learn how to really use magic just like Melisandre, but I would prefer not to feel as awful as I did yesterday.' Evelyn thought, coming to the decision to take it easier.

With that decided she spent the rest of the day practically idle and for the first time just sat down and read a book Melisandre had loaned her.

Her understanding of the langue in this world had only been at an elementary level to begin with, but she had been getting a bit rusty and this was a good opportunity to brush up on it.

Hours went by this way until it was time again for bed and Evelyn happily went to sleep knowing that tomorrow she would practice how to use her magical energy and build on what she had achieved.

Around another dozen days went by as Evelyn spent the majority of her time practicing her control over her magical energy and only on the twelfth day was she able to successfully bring out her pure magical energy one hundred percent of the time.

"Very good. You have made remarkable progress again with your determination and out of the box training methods. Now that you can manifest your pure magical energy, we can work on shaping it as you desire." Melisandre said with a proud smile.

In contrast, Evelyn while excited, was breathing heavily and slumped up against a wall.

She was completely exhausted after working on being able to seamlessly bring out pure magical energy.

It had not been an easy process as the magical energy within her always wanted to come out already imbued with the power of her affinities.

But continuous practice and getting a feel for her magical energy had paid off, and now she could bring out the power within her without activating either of her magical affinities.

Still, while she had gotten to the point of being able to do it a hundred out of a hundred times, which was the requirement that Melamine had set. She was too tired to go on.

"Melisandre would you mind letting me rest for the rest of the day and tomorrow as well? I think I have reached my limit." Evelyn said with a pleading expression.

This actually caught Melisandre by surprise as she had expected her disciple to want to push full steam ahead.

"Sure, that is perfectly fine. We can begin your magic practice when you are ready."

With Melisandre's go-ahead, Evelyn returned to her room and passed out practically immediately.

The next day she took some rare time to just do pretty much nothing and enjoyed some idle time.

However, she eventually became bored and for the first time since she arrived in this world, she really longed for the entertainment that Earth had.

'While I enjoy books, Melisandre has very few stories and I wish I could watch a show of some sorts or play a video game.'

Yet as she thought about his she remembered that the Roost had an entertainment area that Anneli had glossed over.

There she would be able to watch plays at least and decided to go and give it a try.

'That was certainly different.' Evelyn thought after she finished watching a play.

It had not been like anything she had ever seen back on Earth which was to be expected since it was performed by owls.

Unlike the plays that took place on a stage in the Roost the performance area was a giant sphere that allowed the owls that were performing to move around in three dimensions without much restriction.

Also, the story had been somewhat different from what might be expected from an Earth, performance as a group of stalwart owls went out to gather rare materials for their sweethearts.

Overall, the play had been alright. The story from Evelyn's perspective had been plain and not very engaging. But the effects that could be pulled off with the owl's aerial maneuverability and magic was something to be seen and carried the entire show.

Her day of leisure now reaching its end, Evelyn returned to Melisandre's mansion for dinner, and soon went to sleep to rest for the big day where she would begin training how to use magic.

Upon her awakening Evelyn felt in peak condition and after washing herself off headed straight over to the training room.

When she arrived, she found that Melisandre was not there yet and decided to refresh herself on controlling her magical energy.

Luckily everything went well, and she had no problems bringing it out and felt ready to take on the next step.

"Oh, you are already here!" Melisandre said with a little surprise in her voice as she warped into the room.

"Yes, I was feeling anxious and could not wait to get started." Evelyn said through the connection Melisandre had established with her.

"Good, then we will begin with a simple magical energy attack. I am sure you remembered the first time I showed you what I did but allow me to demonstrate again."

Swiftly Melisandre held out her right and the blue glow of magical energy quickly coalesced in her hand before she fired it off.

With the same devastating power it had the first time she saw it, Melisandre's magical energy attack blasted right through a steel panel like it was made of wet paper.

"Whew, this time I managed to hold back enough and not damage the wall." Melisandre said under her breath.

She then turned to Evelyn and said, "Give it a try. I doubt you will be able to blow through the steel plate like I did, but you might be able to put a small dent in it."

Having received Melisandre's encouragement and instructions, Evelyn held both of her wings forward and focused.

She had already gotten used to moving her magical energy and expelling it, but this was the first time she was going to focus it into a projectile.

Slowly and carefully, she brought out more and more energy forming it into a ball just as Melisandre had.

'I wonder if it would work better if I made it spin like a bullet fired from a gun with rifling.'

However, the moment after she had this almost absent-minded thought, a memory of hers that was almost completely repressed surfaced.

Vividly she recalled the time she shot her human father when she felt she simply could take no more of his abuse.

This caused he concentration to wane and the half-formed projectile became unstable and exploded around her.

Yet somehow, she felt no pain, and when she opened her eyes expecting to see her wings damaged, instead Melisandre was standing right in front of her, and they were surrounded in a shimmering blue barrier of water.

'What just happened!?' Evelyn thought as she could not quite process what was going on.

One moment she was losing control of her emotions and magical energy, and the next she was standing behind Melisandre surrounded by water.

"Evelyn are you alright?" Melisandre said with worry visible on her face.

"Yes, I think I am fine." Evelyn said still in a bit of a daze from all that had just happened.

Not only was she feeling frightened by the near explosion she caught herself up in, but the memory of her killing her father was currently playing through her mind.

Letting out a sigh of relief Melisandre dropped the barrier she had created around herself and Evelyn and looked intently at her disciple.

"What went wrong? You seemed to have everything under control, but suddenly your magical energy went haywire."

Lowering her head Evelyn knew she could not say what had actually been on her mind. But she at least told Melisandre that she had suddenly remembered something traumatizing from her past.

"I see. Then if you need some time to get your thoughts in order, might I recommend speaking to Anneli. She is quite empathic and is good at listening to others' problems."

"No, I will be fine. It was simply a phantom from the past. It cannot really hurt me anymore. It just made me lose concentration for a moment. That is all."