Bird calls almost seemed to fill the air as Solara sat alone upon a stone bench within the courtyard of the Academy of Magic. She smiled to herself as she stared at her hand, almost oblivious to events transpiring around her. The occasional student, sometimes in groups of two or three, would walk past her without giving her a second thought. Muffled sounds of shouting or sizzling magic would manage to reach her ears as classes progressed. She did not listen or look: she was jealous.

Her hand was the only object of interest and entertainment for her at that moment. It seemed to crawl with faint flames, barely visible in the daylight, but she knew they were there. The faerie fire spell she had learned from her mother was about the only magic she could ever accomplish. She did not know if it was simply her lack of magical inclination that reduced her talents to a single spell, or perhaps it was just coincidence. Having only one source of happiness from magic, the creation of beloved fire, she used it as often as she could. She liked the smile it brought across her face. She knew it was not real fire, simply a glow of orange warmth, but she accepted that years ago and was happy with what little she did have.

Making a fist, the fire faded away to nothing and she dropped her head lightly. There was no reason for her to be sitting at the famed Academy of Magic with such an insulting amount of magical ability. She desired so greatly to learn, to be able to create beautiful flames and be one with what she loved so dearly, but she had not the courage to even apply to become a student.

Master Ace smiled as he looked out the nearby window of the Classroom from his wooden chair. The sky was clear save a few thin white clouds drifting by. Ace placed down his book. It was far too fine a day to waste reading a volume so simmilar to the pelethora he had read. Ace pushed away from the table and stood up. He walked slowly towards the window, stretching his green wings before as his feet moved. "Perhaps today would be a good day to visit Debon plains. Mom would like a nice picnic," Ace thought to himself with a smile as he examined the sky. Ace had been planing to do something nice for Reis, and Reis would definitely enjoy a nice picnic and a view of the sun setting over Debon plains. She loved to watch the sun rise and set.

Ace didn't have any classes for the rest of the days so the question was simply if his mom was busy. Reis occasionally like to wander around the academy and paint pictures of people willing enough to attempt to sit still, though she preferred just to paint colorful inanimate objects, sunsets, and sunrises. Ace turned for the door hoping to find her in the academy courtyard where she did a good bit of her painting.

Ace did not see his mother in the courtyard, but rather a sight which dispelled his thoughts of merriment. It was a lovely young woman with her head hung low. She did not seem familiar and that was not always a reason to think you didn't know some one in the academy of magic and it was definitely not a reason for Ace to not try and cheer her up. "Is there any thing the matter, M'am?" Ace asked as he approached the stone bench she sat upon.

She remained unmoving as she heard the words spoken and the following trail of footsteps toward her. She was not occupied by the flames and knew of his presence, unlike most of the others who had passed her by in the recent hours she had spent on the bench. Her voice lept from her lips and wafted up to reach the stranger's ears, unhindered by her drooping head.

"I do not believe something can be the matter when it cannot be controlled," came a response. "Since I do not seem to be in control, I have a hard time convincing myself that it is the matter. Thank you for asking, though."

She turned her head slightly to look at the stranger from the corner of her eye. Not human. Curious, she continued to turn her head so that she could get a good look at who had asked her the question. Wings, scales, definately not human. She was used to creatures within the world, but few with a vocabulary. Unjudging, she gave a sweet smile as reassurance that she was thankful that he had cared how she was doing. After a moment, her eyes dropped back down to her lap and her head followed.

With a slight set of motions with her hand, her voice came back, but this one was not directed toward anyone but the ether. She hated feeling useless and upset, so she turned to the one thing that always managed to cheer her up.

Illumani faer

With renewed haste, her faerie fire spell consumed her hand and she smiled once again. While happy, she could not help but let out a long sigh from the thoughts of the Academy.

(Sorry if it's too short. Just to sleppy and don't want to worget to finish it later)
Master ace watched her closely trying to discern what was the matter with her. Her response was one that covered wide span of problems. Most likely a difficulty with magic or perhaps even a paticular type, though there was a small chance it may have reffered to something else.

A peaceful smile soon followed her reply as she got a look at who asked the question, but her gaze soon returned to her lap. The speaking of arcane words soon brought some clarity to Ace as to what the problem was, but Ace was still missing the final connector. He knew her problem was with magic though not with the element of fire. "I hope you don't mind if I take a seat here as well," Ace said politely as het sat down next to her though giving her some space.

"Just because one is not in control at one time does not mean they will never master it or that it can not be mastered," Ace replied. Ace then muttered a few aracne words and his own clawed hand was consumed by an idenitical pale red glow. The glow slowly ran down his arm and quickly consumed the rest of his body. The red glow then slowly changed color, shifting through the rainbow's spectrum at slow and easy to follow pace.

Her first instinct was to try and give a plausible response to the overall correct words that the stranger had just stated. She had already allowed him to sit beside her, and she appreciated the space that he left between them. It just was not the right day to have someone interfering with her own personal room. The person beside her seemed considerate and polite enough, but annoyingly correct. She hesitated with her own words as she fought an internal voice telling her that she might have given up too soon. By the time Solara had successfully wrestled those thoughts away from the front of her mind, she heard more words. These were strangely familiar, even if she had not heard them before.

She looked to the side in time to watch orange flames of faerie fire crawl over his body. A fellow magic-user: not entirely unexpected at the Academy of Magic, but it was still surprising to her. Not only did he know her only spell, but soon the flames shifted into more colors than she thought she could pick out in the world around her. Her small smile had grown across her face as large as it could spread as she saw the fire's dance and it's colors change. Looking back toward her own hand, the same orange glow, she continued to smile and thought about the wonders of having such talent. With eagerness in her voice, she finally commented.

"I am Solara Embersia. I would love to know your name and how it is that you did that!"

(I just noticed special your name was. when I started on this post. :nod:
The orb thingies are nice. Did gary find/make those for you? )
Master Ace could see that his spell was a success from the look in Solora's eyes and her widening smile. She turnd her gaze back to her own creation, but soon turned her attention back to Ace. Her words confirmed his sucess as well.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Solara. I am Master Ace. I am a teacher here at the academy. As for explaining how I did it, I'll try, just tell me if I get too confusing," Ace replied. Ace bit his lip as he tried to think of the simplest way to expalin it.

"Mainly practice will get you there. Just try to imagine something colorful, like maybe a rainbow, when you use it. Unfortunately not all mages will be able to get a full array of colors. The type of energy used somtimes restricts a mage to a few colors. A pyromancer for instance may be able to play well with many shades of red and orange, but find it hard getting other colors. But do not feel discouraged by that. I have seen pyromancers use this spell even better than myself," Ace explained.

The girl obviously so eagerly wanted an explanaation becuase she wwanted to know how to do it herself. Ace would be darned if he did not do what he could to help her. "All right. Think of something colorful with a good bit of orange, Maybe a surise or a vibrant flame. Think of only that as you cast the spell again. Go on, give it a try," Ace instructed.

(OOC: He did :) he found the blue one on a NASA site and made the other two in Photoshop.)

A sincere nod came in response to his warning about a potentially confusing explanation as she replied, "It is my pleasure as well, Master Ace." She chuckled lightly to herself as he bit his lip, most likely thinking about how he was going to word his lesson. She was not a slow learner, at least as far as she could tell. She hoped she could make this as easy as possible for both him and herself. As far as she could guess, making the fire look even a slightly different shade would indebt her to Master Ace more than she had been to any other. It had been so long since she even toyed with the idea of learning more about fire magic.

Solara listened, nodding slowly as he progressed through his explanation to make sure he knew she was paying proper attention. She did not know if he was referring to her specifically when he used the word pyromancer, but at least she knew that it was a possibility. It was considerate to place that side-comment, in her mind. She did not want to get her hopes up and be dissapointed by something that was still a success.

It did not seem so difficult. She had to think of a color, one that she often saw as she stared into the heart of so many flames. Closing her palm into a fist, her old spell was extinguished. She closed her eyes and concentrated, her mouth uttering the same arcane words as she made a few hand motions.

Illumani faer

She opened her eyes and watched her hand only to find nothing. She was confused, the flames had never refused to appear before. In frustration, she cried out the words again, her eyes locked on her hand.

Illumani faer

With a violent burst of vibrant, deep blue flames, her hand was engulfed. The flames settled quickly, being stirred by the force of her casting. She watched in awe, her annoyance gone immediately, and looked over to Master Ace with an obvious expression of gratitude.

Through her joy, her words were hard to come out without being cut by excited breaths, but she managed to apologize: "I am sorry, Master Ace. I tried to think of orange flames when I began, but right before I cast the spell I could only think of my mother's eyes."

Ace watched as she followed his instructions. Her eyes closed in concentration and dispelled her spell with the mere closing of her hand. She repeated her words, bu nothing happened. The look in her eyes was one almost of confushion when she opened her eyes. The look quickly as her eyes fixated upo her hand and she began to repeat her attempt to cast the spell. At least she was not one to give up easily. As long as a student is willing not to give up and has a little bit of magical talent, he could go places.

Master Ace was greatly surprised to see a shade of blue, let alone a deep shade of blue. He had expected only a slight change. It was then that Ace noticed the spells simbalance to fire it was surely not merely a glow as was commonly. It seemed almost as if her hand were alit with an oddly colored flame.

Ace quickly looked up as Solora uttered a completly uneeded apology. "There is no reason to apolgize. This merely shows that you may be more adept than I first guessed. You have done much better than I had expected. Surely if your mother's eyes are anything like your creation then you must be the daughter of a beautiful women," Ace smiled before his attention went back to her hand and the light that enchanted it.

"Perhaps we can move on now to another spell, I'm sure practice will get you where you want to be with that spell. I'm guessing it may be possible that you do not know the spell, create spark," Ace said before begining to provide an example. He called out a few arcane words and snapped his fingers. A small red flame appeared upon his thumb. Ace held it there for her to see and awaited her reaction. His hair, scales and eyes slowly shifted from green to a light shade of red.

"Thank you," came a sincere reply. Solara was very happy to know that she had not been a dissapointment. Almost as a side comment, she added, "My mother was one of the most beautiful women I had ever known. She would have thanked you for teaching me as well."

Solara smiled inwardly as she thought of her mother and how proud she would be to see the blue flames crawling over her skin. It had been so long, but she could remember sitting with her mother by the lake and talking over a beautiful sunset. Most of her best memories were with her mother. She watched herself giggling as a child as her mother let a faint flame of faerie fire crawl around her arm like a small beetle. Solara sighed happily as she sat atop the bench and watched the blue flames lick at the sky from her hand. Listening to Master Ace, she was more than pleased to hear that he was willing to teach her some more magic. It had been so long and he had been such a success just moments before for what she felt was a hopeless case.

She looked over at him as he mentioned create spark, and her eyes seemed to sparkle as a tiny flame appeared atop his thumb. She was silently awed as his entire form seemed to shift to a similar color of red.

"You would teach me that?" she asked in partial disbelief. Unable to shake a feeling she had, she added, "And is that a real flame, not false like what covers my own hand?"

She was wrapped up in her questions and excitement for learning that she did not realize the faerie fire on her hand shifted to match the color of the fire on Master Ace's hand.

Ace smiled as his eyes caught sight of the change in Soloara's faerie fire. It was changing quickly to a red so simmilar to the flame upon his finger. She had potential, that was for sure, doing more without knowing it now than she could when she tried. the world of magic was an interesting one to say the least.

"Yes, it is real. If I were to touch it with my other hand I'd burn my fingers and can feel its warmth even as we speak. And of course I will teach you how to do it, coudn't say I'd done my job otherwise," Ace smiled.

He shook his hand slightly and the flame diminished back into nothingness. "This is another simple spell. I am sure you will have it mastered upon at least the third try. Just make sure you follow my hand movents and repeat after me. If you can try also to think of a campfire sparking to life," Ace instructed. Then he he began to move his hands about in archiac fashion. Ace called out an incantaion as he snaped his finger and once again a red flame sparked into life.

Ace turned his full attention back to her now, eager to see how well she would do. He half expected to see a vibrant flame consume her hand, but that of course was stretching the limits of the spell itself.

Solara was more than giddy to hear that the flame was, in fact, real. She had always wished since her childhood to bring true fire to the world. Her mother had always laughed when she would light the fireplace logs and Solara would run up in her tiny nightgown and beg to learn how it was done. Her mother always told her that she did not wish to drain the fire from Solara's eyes, so she could never in good mind show her how to ignite the fireplace. Solara giggled, knowing her mother was playing with her, but she still desperately desired to know. Now, sitting as a participant in a chance encounter years later in her life, she would finally learn her mother's secrets. She wished she was able to learn the magic and run to her mother to show her new abilities, just as other children would with the fireflies that sparkled in the night. She could not, but she knew her mother would be proud of her.

She smiled back at Master Ace and nodded as he asked her to pay attention. She prided herself in thinking she had to be one of the most attentive students at the Academy at that moment. His hands moved in several intricate patterns, but she was able to follow them thanks to her trade as a fire dancer. With a loud snap, she nodded with finality, silently stating that she knew it was her turn. Her eyebrows tilted inward with concentration as she followed the movements and vaguely repeated the archaic words. Holding her fingers together at the end of the spell, she attempted to snap them, incapable of making the loud noise that Master Ace accomplished with his casting. There was no fire.

Looking up at Master Ace slightly saddened, she said quielty, "I hate to apologize again so soon, Master Ace, but I never knew how to snap my fingers. I just could never get it to work out right for me. I also do not know the language you are speaking when casting the spell, so it is hard for me to repeat it as you had done just moments ago."

Her eyes shifted down, partially due to accepting her failure. She had so much hope and she had not been successful at all. She would normally have been angry with herself, but the fires of her spirit roared once more and she looked back up quickly with determination.

"Perhaps," she said with much more confidence in her voice, "you could tell me what the words mean and I could use the language my mother taught me? Maybe if I do that, I might be able to avoid snapping my fingers as well."

The last part was a statement, not a question. She had formulated an idea. If she had any idea how magic truly worked, she might have doubted herself from the first instant of suggesting it. Luckily, she had barely any idea at all, and she was set in her plans if Master Ace would oblige her curiosity.

(Whoa, That was a serious attack of the deadline gnomes)

Master Ace watched carefully as Solora did her best to follow through and the flame on his finger diminished to the nothingness it had come from. She did well though no flame came forth at her calling. Ace smiled as she once again apologized. Perhaps she was merely too eager to see results as seemed to be the case. She did, however; bring up a very good point. He had never bothered to tell the language he was saying his incantations in. It might be something that could help many students though it was apparently not needed for the majority of the students he had seen. She looked downward, but before Ace could attempt to cheer her up she quickly perked back up with a suggestion.

"There is still no ned to apologize. I belive the snapping of the fingers was not entirely important. Often times one teaches the way he was taught, but that is not always a good thing. As for the langauge, it is an odd language commonly used by mages for many years. It is mainly derived from the draconic language and many of the words can't truely be translated. It is isn't excatly a language to converse with others with. It serves more to communicate with magical energy. The name of the language is Mytheris though most mages don't know it," Ace replied eager to share the fruit of his research.

"Now that digressing lesson is over, I'll answer your question as to what it means. It means somewhere around the lines of, Come fire or come burning fire. Anything to that effect should work. Use which every you think sounds best. Just remember that if don't get it right the first time there is not always reason to give up trying," Ace smiled before recasting his spell slowly only this time without the loud snap of his fingers. The flame appeared in the same manner as before. Ace's eyes turned from his own flame, back to her awaiting her to give it another try.

"Mytheris," came a slow response to no one in particular as Solara repeated the name of the language after Master Ace had stated it.

She was intrigued by the thought of a draconic language. She knew dragons to be powerful creatures of legend, but she had never considered a language of their kind. Nevertheless, she respected dragons for their own mastery of the flames. It was not entirely surprising to know that the language of such magical beasts could be used to converse with magic itself.

Solara's eyes watched Master Ace closely as he repeated the spell, this time avoiding the snap at the end. "You are very knowledgeable, Master Ace," came a response as a new flame hung over her mentor's hand. "Thank you for answering my silly question; I hope that now I will not dissapoint you."

Looking down at her own hands, she resolved herself to succeed this time. Mumbling to herself, she repeated the words she should say, but still in the common tongue. "Come burning fire. Come burning fire. That would be," she paused at the end, thinking. "Perhaps it would be just that."

Closing her eyes in concentration, Solara's mouth fell to a line across her face and she started rubbing her flat palms against each other. Her eyes squinted and her brow furled as she tried to call out her translation.

Feir Kommoth

Suddenly, her hands stopped rubbing against one another. Instead, her left hand raised abover her right and she quickly moved it downward to glance across the waiting palm, like steel over flint. A small shower of quickly fading sparks flew outward from the impact, leaving only a tiny flame resting atop her fingers.

She opened her eyes as she felt a strange warmth on her hand. A small fire burned atop her skin, but did not burn her. It was real. She cried.