Hunted Sorcery (Jon Oklar Book 2) by B.T. Narro (chapter books to read to 5 year olds .txt) 📕

“So your mana must be connected to your mind in such a way that it understands your thoughts,” I realized.

“Yes, it must.”

“Then using mana for resistance should be the same way,” I concluded, thinking I was onto something, but she shook her head at me.

“It’s not exactly like that. Resistance takes practice, like spellcasting. You cannot tell your mana to cast Expel without help from your mind, and you cannot tell your mana to resist Dislodge without help from your mind. You must train to cast and to resist specific spells. Your mana works in harmony with you because it is part of you. It is like an arm and a hand, but so much more. You understand?”

“Yes. Will you cloak again?” I decided to take a different approach to resistance now. In order to resist the spell, I had to fight it the same way I would fight Dislodge trying to take me off my feet.

Eslenda cloaked. I moved close. Her silhouette looked like heat waves.

I felt nothing. Nothing. I tried closing my eyes to really focus on what my mana told me, but that didn’t help, either.

I opened my eyes. “Why can’t I feel the spell?” I asked, holding back my frustration.

She reappeared, but it was Charlie who answered. “Because the illusionist is too strong. You’re trying to resist a powerful spell from a powerful sorcerer, and you’ve had no practice. It would be like trying to resist Leon’s fire. It’s just not going to work.”

“I believe the young one is right, Jon. This is pointless. I have wasted enough time as it is. The forest must be watched.”

I let out my breath. “Please just another moment. I can’t leave without having some idea what to practice.”

“You’re going to have to learn ordia,” Eden told me. “I can feel when she’s using the spell because it feels like ordia. I know that doesn’t help you much,” she said with a shrug. “It’s like a tickle in my mind. I don’t know how to describe it.”

“But can you locate her by feeling for ordia?”

“I have a general sense of where she is, yes. But Aliana would be more accurate with her tracking.”

“That’s true,” Aliana agreed. “It doesn’t seem like you’re going to learn to resist the spell before you might learn how to cast it. We might as well get to training, all of us. We don’t often get to the forest, as you’ve said.”

I hated to give up on the idea of seeing through Cason’s illusion, especially given how difficult it was going to be for me to learn ordia. But it was what the king wanted. Aliana was right. It was time to train while we could.

At least the time wasn’t wasted, I told myself. I had learned more about mana, and its connection to the mind. I still felt like I knew hardly anything, however. I was a little envious of Charlie, how much time he’d spent studying mana. And with his mind, he absorbed it very quickly. I really should be experimenting with him, like he had been pleading with me to do for some time now.

As soon as I learned some ordia.

“All right, thank you, Eslenda,” I said. “I’m sure we’ll see each other again.”

“We will. Best of luck against Cason, all of you. He is a man who does not deserve freedom, for he has used it against the good of mankind.”

She walked off.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Shortly after Eslenda left, Eden asked Aliana if she would hunt with her, as it would be a good way for Aliana to practice her tracking as well obtain ingredients for Eden’s enchantments. I still didn’t know what kind of enchants she was making, but I figured if she had something useful for my sword, she would’ve told me. It was clear by now that our fight against our enemies was not over.

I expressed my worry about them hunting alone, but I felt better after Reuben and Michael agreed to join them. That left me with Charlie, Kataleya, and Remi.

But after a little bickering with Charlie—when he’d soon realized I was only going to be training ordia right now and not helping him experiment with mana—he rushed off to catch up with the hunting group, leaving me with just the fire and water mages.

We practiced for hours, snacking through lunch without stopping. I made good progress familiarizing myself with the low notes of ordia, thanks to my vibmtaer and color chart. I took breaks when I tired, watching Remi and Kataleya with awe.

Remi played with fire casually, as if the burning energy was a third arm she had her whole life. She could bend it to her will, reshaping the fire from clusters into spears.

Kataleya was just as talented with water, moving and shaping it in similar ways as if competing with Remi. They seemed to find entertainment in one-upping each other, often shown through tense expressions that broke into smiles as they mimicked each other’s shapes.

My morbid thoughts made me curious about who would win in a fight between them.

Remi broke out in a sweat quickly, her wild hair sticking to the sides of her face. I was sure part of the reason was the heat from her fire, which I could feel even ten yards from her, but the other reason certainly had to do with the immense effort she put into practicing. As determined as I was, even I took more breaks than she did, as it was just too taxing for me to continuously use low notes of mana. Remi usually trained hard in the courtyard, but here she seemed to strive for improvement with even more ferocity, as her game with Kataleya slowly came to an end. Each practiced on her own again.

My stomach was grumbling. I had eaten, but the quality of the dried food we’d brought just didn’t compare to what we would’ve gotten at the castle. I didn’t have the same